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
A77459	A briefe relation of the present troubles in England: vvritten from London the 22. of Ianuary 1644. to a minister of one of the reformed churches in France. VVherein, is clearely set downe who are the authours of them, and whereto the innovations both in church and state there doe tend. Faithfully translated out of the French.; Letter concerning the present troubles in England.	Tully, T. (Thomas), 1620-1676.	1645 (1645)	Wing B4630; Thomason E303_1; ESTC R200287	52,984	69

horrible thing that they should plot the destruction of Her soule and endeavour to extend the fruits of their Rebellion against Her in another world Will you not say it had beene enough to persecute Her in thi● but I have not yet told you all They have also basely and insolently stained Her Reputation and in a way which all honest men will account no better then parricide attempted to murther a Princesse a Daughter of France to whom the winds and the sea had shewed more pitty but an houre before And yet forsooth they must needs have all the Reformed Churches to make them their Precedent inviting us whom they ranke among such as groane under the yoake of Anti Christian Tyranny to The expresse words of the Covenant joine with them in the same or like Association and Covenant and to use our utmost endeavours for the recovery of Peace and quiet in every part of Christendome What is this but to sollicite us to shake off the yoake of Soveraignty to deny all subjection to our Princes and at once to destroy both their Authority and their Persons For all which they pretend the Advancement of the Kingdome of Christ 'T is indeed mightily advanced since these men who call themselves his Disciples have subverted all secular Authority amongst them scattering abroad such positions as ought to render them odious to us in as much as they convince them before all the Powers of God's establisHing to be sowers of sedition Libertinisme and Rebellion But granting them that all this combustion they make in the world is to advance the Kingdome of Christ Have they any warrant from the example of the Primitive Christians to pursue that ●nd by such meanes no it was never in their thoughts to arme themselves so much as against those Pagan Monsters whose calmest d●meanour towards them farre surpassed in rigour and cruelty all the outrage and persecution which we can be imagined to have s●ffered from any of our Princes for above five hundred yeares together Saint Peter was reprov'd for presuming to defend his Master with the sword This example l'me sure is authentique nor is that of the Christians under the Emperour Julia● much inferiour to it Their number was great and their power formidable but their Religion restrained them from employing it against their Prince though in their owne defence Please you to call to minde the Theban Legion Doubtlesse they had all heard and weighed that injunction of our Saviour But I say unto you that ye resist not evill They had learned also that the Powers are ordained of God and that whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the ordinance of God Not as if that prohibition to resist Princes implyed a Command of obeying them against Conscience All that can be deduced thence is this That in case they shall persecute their Subjects out of any considerations whatsoever whether sacred or civill it were better to endure a thousand deaths then to lift up a hand against them The crime of these men will appeare farre more horrid if notice be taken that the King against whom the combination is made did never attempt the least innovation either in Religion or Liberty I speake onely of England As for Scotland I am not ignorant what hath passed there of which I intend to give you a particular relation They cannot produce any innovation here Indeed the a It is to be presumed that the Author being a stranger was too faire transported with the vulgar outcryes against this worthy Prelate whose many pious actions the sincerity of whose intentions had he truly known he would readily have given another character of him And when he shall understand and consider his constant perseverance to Death in the same resolutions of zeale for the true Protestant Religion and exemplary loyalty to his King for which he became a willing sacrifice no doubt but he ●ill be as ready to retract this rash censure as we to admonish Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was shrewdly suspected to have beene contriving some That weake ill-temperd and fondly ambitious soule would perhaps have presumed to be tampering had he continued longer in place which is therefore now the principall charge against him But as for the King what signall demonstrations hath he not ever given the world of an extreame a version from Popery How many Protestations hath he made of sticking close to the Protestant Religion How carefull is he to performe all those duties to which the Faith he professeth obligeth him He hath filled the Churches and Sees with men whose piety knowledge and conversation are patternes worthy the imitation of the most Orthodox Christians His house hath ever abounded with men of Learning and Honesty Besides what would it advantage him to reestablish Popery Is he weary of being a free Monarch Would he do homage againe to Rome and acknowledge a Soveraignty above his owne The Interests of his Crowne as well as those of his Conscience would not suffer him to entertaine such a thought But this is not all he would have cause to feare a farre greater mischeife from Scotland which all the advantages he could hope for from all the Papists in the world would never be able to counterpoise He must further shake off them of the Palatinate and in doing that forfeit all his reputation in Germany He must breake with Denmarke Nay he must not entertaine any commerce either with his nearest allyes or his dearest freinds The marrying of his Daughter to the Prince of Orange's Sonne is a pregnant evidence of his affection to the Protestant Religion But to make good their Calumny they accuse him of favouring Papists and yet who knowes not that the exchequer was never fuller with their composition-money then now In the Reignes of King Edward Queene Elizabeth and King James they were not used with halfe the rigour When this King shewed them most favour it came short of what they have done But I pray by what principle of Christianity are we bound to destroy such as are of a different Religion There is no forceing of any man's beleife none that can subdue the Liberty of the soule God onely excepted Our French Kings are well instructed in this point they might with a like equity destroy or banish us as here they do Papists did they not know that the conscience neither can nor ought to be forced Most true it is that the Protestants in France never attempted any thing upon the persons of their Princes what violence soever hath beene practic'd upon them by such as abused their Authority on the contrary for all their sufferings they have made it legible to the world that they would rather part with all the bloud in their veines in their defence then hazard the least drop to be revenged of them even then when some strange counsells had prevailed with them to signe their destruction A very pressing consideration wherewith to refute all pretended interests of Religion and to procure

of the Church or State have no portion amongst the faithfull nor the Saints of God and for this very reason I cannot be perswaded they have any favourers or Abettours amongst us or that any to whom God hath given the least graine of understanding or honesty will not condemne their designe and all their proceedings and having once advised them to quit such courses will not utterly detest them if they persevere You will say now that though they have put downe Episcopacy and undermined the power of the Nobility yet they are not any way disaffected to Royalty Can any man beleive this after so many thousand seditious Propositions which they daily publish both in Presse and Pulpit peruse them I beseech you for my sake though I know you cannot doe it without horrour and ever and anon turning your eyes from them so full of venime are they against all the Princes in the world so contrary to the doctrine and practice of Christians and so injuriuos to the name and profession of all true and sincere Protestants such are these Though the King be greater then any one of his Subjects in particular yet he is farre lesse then the body collective of all his Subjects The King is for the people and not the people for the King and by consequent the people are of more worth and value then he in as much as the meanes are alwaies subordinate to that end to which they are directed and from whence they derive their worth The power and authority of any usu●●ing Tyrant is as much from God as that of lawfull Kings The Power of Princes those especially which by inheritance are such flowes from the people and consequently is more deeply rooted and eminently seated in them then it is in the Person of the Prince because Quod efficit tale est magis tale I am forced to make use of their owne barbarous tearmes that I may the better expresse the barbarousnesse of their conceptions As Kings receive their power from the people so they may be divested of it by them either in the body collective of all or in the body representative in Parliament or by the major part of either In case the King shall falsifie the Oath he takes at his Coronation the people are thereupon discharged a●d freed from their alleagiance to him Positions so much the more absurd because the Lawes of that Land have provided to the contrary and that all the world have acknowledged it as a maxime that the King of England never dyes that without all distinction of time as well before as after his Coronation he receives all such homages and services as are due to the Crowne that he is not King upon condition as if by violation thereof he should fall from his Right to the Kingdome but upon bare promises the non performance of which is enough to denominate him unjust but not to depose him They proceed No sonne may with more equity binde the hand of his distracted father no marriner more justly remove a Pilot from the Sterne who would wracke the ship either out of ignorance or malice then Subjects may by force of armes dethrone their Prince if he shall once apparently hearken to any counsels pernicious to the State and that the Common●wealth either by his weakenesse or negligence be in danger of ruine Saint Paul doth not command but barely exhort a●ery soule to be subject to the higher powers This was but a prudentiall counsell of one that was to rule a People at such a time as they had neither strength nor meanes to doe otherwise and that to thinke the contrary were to put such a yoake upon the conscience as he never dreamed of By the higher powers Saint Paul speakes of we are not to understand the Person of a King but his charge and office as it is represented in his Courts and in the Parliament insomuch that the Subjects of England according to this doctrine may beare armes against CHARLES STEVVART residing at Oxford and yet still observe that alleagiance which is due to the King in his Parliament at Lond. Which is as much of a true body to make an idle phantasme of a King a Chimera as some have done of Christ himselfe transubstantiating him from a true man to an imaginary senselesse and absurd I know not what The Authors of these pernicious opinions might learne a little more wisedome were they but capable of weighing as they ought the rules of that State which informe us that every treason respects either mediately or immediately the person of the King There can none of them be ignorant how that before these fatall distractions all the Judges were of opinion and have so determined the case that the Subjects of England are clearely and absolutely bound to obey their Prince even in his naturall capacity that is the person of CHARLES STEVVART and not onely in his politique capacity as he is I know not what imaginary and Platonicke King Besides they need not be informed how this very doctrine which the Parliamenteers at this day publish to the world and upon which they ground all their severall acts of violence is both in the Magna Charta and those acts concerning the banisHment of Hugh Spencer condemned in full Parliament and rejected as a principle of Treason fraud and Rebellion They proceed yet further and tell us That the Parliament may in case of necessity ordaine lawes for peace and warre in spight of the Prince which shall equally oblige every member of the State And in case the King refuse to confirme them the same Parliament is to be the sole arbitratour and judge of that necessity and of the time how long it ought or can continue That the King is bound to ratifie all presented to him by the Parliament notwithstanding all the objections which either his Counsell or his owne reason and Conscience shall suggest unto Him That the Civill Government ought alwaies to give place to the Ecclesiasticall Were it so that the government of the Church here were partly Democraticall as the Brownists would have it or partly Aristocraticall and partly Democraticall as it is amongst the Presbyterians it is easy to inferre what would become of the Civill Magistrate These are the holy maximes and pious Doctrines of those that pretend to purity of life and talke of restoring the Lawes and Ordinances framed by our first Reformers to that vigour and Authority which the Tyrants of the Conscience and enemies of all secular power have wrested from them I am sure neither Christ nor Moses nor Paul nor Peter taught them any such lesson but Maria●● Bellarmine Bourchier Brutus Buchanan and the rest of those Hellish finebrands employed by the Devill to disturbe that Order which the Eternall providence of Heaven had set up in the World Let me hereunto adde that notable demonstration of their Affection towards their Queene They have expressely prohibited all prayers both publique and private for Her Conversion A