Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	ordinance_n	power_n	resist_v	1,861	5	9.7674	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29573	An apologie of John, Earl of Bristol consisting of two tracts : in the first, he setteth down those motives and tyes of religion, oaths, laws, loyalty, and gratitude, which obliged him to adhere unto the King in the late unhappy wars in England : in the second, he vindicateth his honour and innocency from having in any kind deserved that injurious and merciless censure, of being excepted from pardon or mercy, either in life or fortunes.	Bristol, John Digby, Earl of, 1580-1654.	1657 (1657)	Wing B4789; ESTC R9292	74,883	107

Gods extraordinary Judgements are not to be made Rules or Patterns of ordinary Government But God hath given us a written law in the Scripture and by the constant precepts contained in them we are to be guided and not by the extraordinary Examples recited in them Of which we may boldly say That as it is most certain they were not wicked how severe soever they may seem because God commanded them so it is as certain it were wickedness in us to imitate them not having Gods especial Command for them which will not now be pretended unto by any The Cases of Eglon Zimri Jehu c. are justified by Gods being the Commander of them and Sin is nothing but an Obliquitie from Gods will But it is Gods revealed and declared Will which is to be our rule God is pleased to declare * That the Father shall not die for the sin of the Son nor the Son for the sin of the Father But every one shall bear his own iniquity This is his revealed Law by which we are to govern our selves Yet God in his secret yet most just Judgement will have Achan with his Wife and Children and all belonging unto him to be stoned to death the like of Corah and divers others which particular Judgements of God we ought to fear and reverence but not to draw from them Example or watrant against the Commandement or declared Law of God But in the whole old Testament I conceive there will not be found any one Precept or toleration of hostile Resistance nor any Example the extraordinary Cases excepted countenancing Disobedience to the lawful Supreme Magistrate But so much to the contrary That there is no Duty next after the fearing honouring and serving of God more inculcated than the fearing obeying and honouring of the King as his Vicegerent Dixi vos Di● est is * I said ye are Gods * The Kings Throne is called the Throne of God the Judgement of the Supreme Magistrate the Judgement of God and most of the Attributes of God are applyed unto them And for the new Testament The Precepts therein against Resistance are not only much more positive and direct but the punishments of much a higher nature For the punishments of the old Testament are no where explicitly beyond death whereas S. Paul saith * That He that resisteth the Powers ordained by God procureth to himself Damnation Our Saviour Mar. 12.17 commandeth us out of his own mouth to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods Now I must clearly profess That before the War was actually and hostilely entred into my Conscience was in great suspension and doubt that those ways and Courses which were pursued tended not only not to give unto Caesar what belonged unto Caesar but to take from him that which undoubtedly and undeniably was his as likewise to take from God that which belonged unto him by applying that which had for many hundred years been dedicated and appropriated unto him and his Service to common uses which hath in all times and even amongst Heathen been known by the name of Sacrilege And which divers grave and learned Divines of that way as Dr. Burgesse and Mr. White of Dorchester by name in the beginning of the Parliament told me That they would never a●●ent unto or approve the applying the Revenue of the Church unto temporal uses They conceived they might be better imployed than they were for the maintenance of Preaching Ministers and other pious uses But to be taken from the Church and applyed to prophane uses I am sure their Opinions were then against it For the former of taking from the King what was his I was too much confirmed by the 19. Propositions of Grocers Hall which were sent unto the King some moneths before I withdrew my self from Parliament As likewise by divers other particulars denied unto the King which were as undoubtedly his as the Crown And for the second of taking from God what belonged unto him I wish my doubts had not been so well confirmed by the use that hath been made of the Lands and Revenue of the Church to be made in great part the Hire of Forein Forces against their Prince and the rest to satisfie the Usury of the said wages So that those antient devout Dedications intended for a perpetual Maintenance of Gods Church and his Ministers have by way of Commutation Change been applyed to the pious uses of Usury and the maintenance of a Civil war But our Saviours Command being clear and positive to give unto Caesar what belonged to Caesar I did conceive That Honour Fealty Loyalty and Obedience did as much belong unto him as Tribute Service and other Regalities of his Crown All which I had by Oaths legally established and by lawfull Authority administred unto me sworn more than ten times to King James to belong unto him and to his lawfull Heirs and Successors and often likewise unto King Charls And that I would in them bear to him Faith and true Alleagiance Now whether the said 19. Propositions which are here unto annexed And many o●her things which as occasion shall be offered will be instanced in might not administer unto me a just Scruple of Conscience of swerving from this plain precept of our Saviour of giving unto Caesar what belonged unto him and unto God the things that are Gods I shall remit to any Christian of what Profession soever he shall be Our Saviour doth further confirm this his Precept by his own Example of paying Tribute-money though he might have exempted himself from it as being no Stranger Yet Mat. 17.27 Notwithstanding saith he lest we should offend them Go to the Sea and cast in an Angle c. So that he would rather do a Miracle than do that which might seem to be like Sedition or Disobedience St. Paul in the 13 chap. of his Epistle to the Romans 1 2 3 4 verses telleth us That we may not resist the Powers ordained over us by God And he that resisteth this Ordinance shall receive to himself Damnation And verse the 15. That we must be subject not only for wrath but for Conscience sake Now that the King is this Power ordained over us by God I never heard any doubt made by any of his just rightfull Title In all the Acts of Parliaments which have been by the Houses offered unto him for his Royal Assent since his coming unto the Crown it is acknowledged We your Majesties most humble and most faithfull Subjects And if we ackowledge our selves his Subjects we doe therein acknowledge him our Soveraign And in the beginning of every Parliament both in the House of Peers and in the House of Commons before they take their Seat and Place in Parliament they do by Oath declare and testify in their Conscience That the Kings Highnesse is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm and all other his Countries and

Dominions c. And this Declaration I and all the rest of the Members of both Houses have made So that it being an uncontroverted and confessed truth That the King is our lawfull Soveraign and we his faithfull Subjects and consequently the Power ordained over us by God the which to resist by S. Pauls Doctrine delivered in plain and explicit terms is To procure to our selves Damnation I must confesse That although I will not judge other men yet I durst not adventure my Soul upon a Moot-Case or upon Distinctions or strained Interpretations against that which appeared unto me to be the literal and clear sense S. Paul declaring Rom. 14.22 23. That he that doubteth is damned The meaning whereof I understand to be That he that doubteth that that which he doth is sinfull and wicked and yet adventureth to do it therein sinneth presumptuously and thereby runneth a hazard of Damnation And truly I did much more than doubt for I was as S. Paul requireth we should be Rom. 14.23 Fully perswaded in mind of the contrary So that without Impiety and making Shipwrack of my Conscience against the plain Precepts of Scripture I could not adhere to the way of Resistance CHAP. IV. The Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church of not resisting their Princes notwithstanding they were Heathens or Apostates I Well know that the Authority of Scripture needeth not any humane or forein support But because the Parties of several yea contrary wayes will both pretend to have the Scriptures in their favour and from them to draw the rule of their Consciences alike to me it seemed that nothing ought to be of greater Authority under Scripture or like rightly to interpret Scripture than the unanimous Doctrine and practice of the Primitive times and of those holy and learned men who as they were nearer to the times of our Saviour and of the Apostles and of those Pen-men of God so doubtless they saw by clearer light than we do now at a greater distance And really by what I could ever read or be instructed in from others I could never find any thing either allowing or countenancing the Subjects taking Arms against their Soveraign although it were in the highest and most bloody persecution and under the worst of Princes many of them being Heathens Tyrants and Apostates And yet it was to these wicked Persecutors to whom our Saviout and his Apostles injoined Obedience And the primitive Fathers practised it in their sufferings and Martyrdoms But I must confess I have met with a most untrue Allegation and most injurious to Christian innocency That the reason of the Christians bearing so many wrongs and oppressions was because they had not then power and means to do otherwise or right themselves The untruth of this Allegation will appear by the writings of those Fathers whose profession it was to bear and suffer but not to resist Flere potero dolere potero c. aliter nec debeo nec possum resistere was the Saying of S. Ambrose S. Syprian saith Quamvis nimius copiosus noster populus non tamen adversus violentiam se ulciscitur sed patitur And Nicephorus reporteth that in one day twenty thousand Christians were slain in the City of Nicomedia under Dioclesian And many of their books are full of passages of this strain And to conceive that power to resist was only wanting is not only injurious to the Innocency of those Holy Men but injurious to God who if his Glory had not been more advanced by their Sufferings Martyrdom and Persecution than by Resistance or that Resistance had been commanded by him or he pleased therein Those his holy Servants should not have perished for want of Power Our Saviour saith when for the defence of his own Person he prohibiteth resistance * If he would he could pray to his Father who would send him more than twelve Legions of Angels And when the preservation of Gods Servants redoundeth more to the Glory of God than their sufferings He is never wanting to them * As we see by so many deliverances by the extraordinary Power of God But the truth is That unto these Primitive men treading in the steps of the Apostles their sufferings were their Glory their Rejoycing and their Advantage And divers of the Fathers by way of prevention as it were foreseeing that this Scandal might be cast upon their Innocency and Christian Patience That it was want of means and power and nor of will that they resisted not do clearly declare That neither Numbers Armes or Courage were wanting to them wherewith they might defend themselves nor Injuries Oppressions and Persecutions wanting that might provoke them thereunto But it was the Example of Christ and his Apostles sufferings and their holy Doctrine and Precepts commanding Obedience that suffered not their hands to fight against the Powers ordained by God over them although they used both hands and armes with remarkable Valour and Success against the Enemies of their Princes notwithstanding the said Princes were Heathen and Persecutors of the Church of God But this Doctrine of not Resisting some of our new Divines who cannot but acknowledge it to be both the Doctrine and practice of the Apostles and Primitive Times do now say That God was not then pleased to reveal the Doctrine of Resistance But that Martyrdoms and sufferings were the way by which he thought it then sit no plant the Church which he is now pleased should be protected by Resistance and enlarged by power Wherein they have mistaken the Text For that that Doctrine instead of the Bible is taken out of the Alcoran where Mahomet saith That God had sent Christ in the Spirit of meekness to establish his Law But now by him he would have his Law setled and established by the power of the Sword and Conquest And if prevailing or success might stand for Arguments it will be hard convincing this Mahometan Doctrine But certainly the general and universa Tenent of all the Churches of Christendom were and I conceive are still That as Religion ought not to be planted by force or constraint So Christian Subjects ought not to make Religion the ground of their Resistance or taking Armes against their Prince And herein there is a concurrence of all Protestant Churches although they differ in many other points who in their publique Confessions do not admit of Hostile Resistance against their Supream Magistrate And more particularly the Church of England which without any immodestie may challenge her part in the Reformation she having had many learned Propugners of it by their Writings and not a few that have sealed it with their Blood by patiently dying for it hath declared against it confirming the Exhortation to Obedience published in the time of Edw. 6. and the Homilie of Obedience by the Articles of their Confession of Faith The like doth the rest of the Reformed Churches in the Harmony of their Publique Confessions So that