Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A31766
|
The Charity and loyalty of some of our clergy in a short view of Dr. M's sermon before their Majesties at Hampton-Court, July the 14th, 1689 : where-in he still charges the Protestant dissenters with schism : with some occasional remarks upon a clergy-mans considerations for taking the Oath of allegiance to King William and Queen Mary, and upon the history of passive obedience since the Reformation.
|
|
1689
(1689)
|
Wing C2068; ESTC R23924
|
20,585
|
36
|
had been impossible for a Man who held several Knights Fees to have discharged the Duty of his tenure Even where there was no Knight's Service antiently and since its being taken away all Men have been and yet are oblig'd to provide Arms and the Bodies of Men either their own or others for the Defence of the Kingdom according to their Estates real or personal Nor have the Clergy any Exemption for this Neither do the Acts establishing a Militia discharge any Man from this which is a Duty at Common Law of which the Confessors Law and the Statute of Winchester are declaratory But what ever Exemption Clergy-men have it is because of their Attendance in their Ministerial Office upon which account the dissenting Ministers have the like Exemption by the late Statute What then if any of our Clergy decline swearing Allegiance till the time of Deprivation incurs may and will they still exercise their Function If they may and will why might not they as well who were turn'd out by the Bartholomew Act If they may not or will not what Exemption can they claim more than Lay-men If they say still their Character is indelible Is no Duty annexed to the Character But is not this fine Doctrine to be insinuated now as if no Man were obliged to endeavour by Arms to keep our King in his Station Or if other Men are at least not Clergy-men But that if you resist him by Arms nothing but want of Success can make it criminal Sure I am that egregious Pattern of Christian fortitude Mr. Johnson on whom this Author reflects was degraded by his Brethren and delivered over to the secular scourge for less than this When I consider how earnestly this Man presses taking the Oaths I cannot but think of the Advice said to be given by the late King to his Friends here That as many of them as can should get into Offices And we may hence observe what is to be expected from those Clergy-Men who take the Oath of Allegiance with a Protestation that they do it barely as to a King de facto their Loyalty may vie with St. Beckets who was for swearing to the King with a salvo jure to the Pope whether such ought to be suffer'd to spread their Doctrines with a Face of Authority and what Punishments they deserve who accept of such Protestations I submit to my Superiors But sure I am this will not be enough in Law to keep their Livings unless they are favour'd by an undue entry upon Record Yet who can chuse but wonder how from the same Text a Clergy Man should enforce the Obligation of submitting to a Tyrant in the exercise of Power upon pain of Damnation and yet make the Penalty less in the case of resisting one who is really God's ordinance as he is a Minister of Good but in his opinion wants Title though the Law be on his side This can be for no other Reason but that whatsoever becomes of the State Vid. pag. 41 without condemning the Doctrine of Non-resistance Church-Men must not recede from their darling-Notion of Non-resistance And rather than they should be thought Ecclesiastical Weather-cocks the State must be turn'd round again into Confusion Nor do they care how much they reflect upon those noble Patriots who invited this King when he was Prince Ibid. and appeared in Arms with him for the Protestant Cause If they can but free their Coat from the necessity of retracting those Slavish Doctrines Vid. Jovoan In all soveraign Governments the Subjects are and ought to be slaves if if the King pleases which though many of them have renounced in their Actions they would still justify in Principle And as it is to be presum'd that every Man will act according to his Principle when he has an inviting Opportunity I leave it to all impartial Men to consider which are most likely to be true to the present Government they who believe the Soveraign Power inseparable from the Person of the late King that they were in a State of Damnation who offered to resist his Arbitrary Usurpations that themselves are exempted from assisting this Government with their Persons or their Arms in the utmost Extremity and may resist when they are likely to escape temporal Judgment Or they who are ready to hold to the Death that our present King has as good a Title as ever King of England had Which has already been evinced in some Measure And did the Men of Scruples vouchsafe to produce any colourable Objection History of Passive Obedience considered Vid. Preface should be farther Indeed a certain injudicious Author has with a plain evil Design against the present Settlement heapt up Numbers of Quotations to prove that it is a Truth as eternal and unalterable as any Doctrine of Christianity that a Superior is not in Things unlawful to be resisted upon any pretence whatsoever in the utmost extent of which Assertion Ibid no sort of Superior Justice of the Peace or other is to be resisted even where he acts without colour of his Office. But what he drives at is that Men ought to be unalterably true to their Oaths and suppos'd Duty to the late King at leasthe will allow of no discharge in Law sufficient Hist pag. 54. unless the late King give an express release and according to his Quotation out of Dr. Hammond's practical Catechism History pag. 54. will have the Duty of Allegiance to continue where the suppos'd legal Soveraign doth still claim his Right to his Kingdoms and to the Allegiance of his Subjects no way acquitting them from their Oaths or laying down his Pretentions though for the present he be overpower'd This I am sure he will never prove to be the steady Doctrine of that Church Preface which he calls poor and despised and of whose Interests he pretends to the deepest sense while he would render it such by keeping it too firmly attach'd to the Interest of the late misguided and unfortunate King let him if he can squeez this sense out of its Articles or Homilies Certain it is he is far from bringing a cloud of Witnesses to his imaginary eternal verity Few of the passages which he cites enforce more than Obedience to lawful Authority some indeed and chiefly Persons now alive let fall expressions through inadvertency or prevalence of strong Temptations which 't is to be hoped that many of them have repented of since their later Discourses and Practices notoriously contradict them and surely little proof of the steady Doctrine of a Church can be had from such Inconstancy I must own that this Collection is to one purpose very useful for some of them wanted to be thus Admonish'd of their frailty and 't will be happy for them if this Humiliation can expiate for that poison which has infected many beyond Remedy from the Antidote they now yield while out of the Eater comes forth Meat and themselves pull down that
of Schism than that which Clergy-men have taken up to keep together a Party which if they give the Word may be and often have been troublesome to Civil Governments Unreasonable Quarrels and Strifes proceeding from Pride and carnal Considerations are the most truly Schismatical And why the Dissenters may not be even with many of them in returning the Censure I see no reason Sure I am they have had more tender Usage than the Dissenters had Their Consciences were to be admitted to labour with Qualms for many Months In which time a great Judgment might be made which side would be uppermost Whereas the poor Dissenters must in an instant be resolved of all their Scruples or yield to a speedy Deprivation without any intermediate Suspension to bring them to consider by feeling a temporary loss Some may think this an uncharitable Insinuation that the Clergy by their Friends prest for so long time till they might see which side would prevail But besides that the Points in question might otherwise soon be determined one way or other this can be no great doubt to them who have heard how many were seized with suddain Scruples upon the flying report of General Maccay's being routed or who consider upon what Ground many of them have prayed for King William which is barely as he is King de facto as appears by their now declining to swear Allegiance to him Considerations for taking the Oath of Allegiance Page 53. And of them who swear Allegiance some at least go upon the same Ground Or if more as his Title is allowed of by the Law and conferr'd with those Formalities of Law and with those usual Ceremonies and Rites which customarily are obsero'd in the most regular Collation of Titles Wherein that Clergy-Man who offers Considerations for taking the Oath of Allegiance leaves a Surmise that our King's Title may not have been according to the strict Rules of Justice as being obtained by due means or conferred without Injustice or Injury done to any Person which he distinguishes from a Title barely allowed of by the Law. Nay Page 46 47. he manifestly supposes that the late King is injured he being God's Ordinance the Minister of God for good not to be resisted and we bound to be subject to him however he demeaned himself in the Exercise of the Government And this he applies equally to wicked Magistrates who act without regard to those Bounds which the Law has set them And even Vsurpers that is to Usurpers both of Power and of Title as long as they are in Possession But herein only is he unequal Page 50. that whereas he tells us that though Princes exert Power without due Title or Commission from God Page 56. that is are Usurpers of Power we are bound to suffer patiently and be subject for Conscience towards God and cannot forceably resist them without Peril of Damnation Yet when he speaks of a King de facto coming in with usual Formalities of Law suppos'd by him to be an Usurper of Title he says that which we translate Damnation Page 57. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Judgment And Treason against a King de facto is punishable by the Judgment of Death This is Treason by our Law and I do thus offend by levying War against the King for the time being though in favour of a King de jure It may be Judgment to resist the King de facto in favour of a King de jure i. e. it may be an offence which by the Law may render me obnoxious to Judgment And by Consequence a Man may rebel against the King de facto whenever he has Opportunity or fair Prospect of Impunity here and may be subject for Wrath but not for Conscience sake In short if you resist him you shall be hang'd if you resist the other you shall be damn'd Suppose then that the late King encourag'd by them who believe him still to continue King de jure should land here with French and Irish Forces having their Commissions seal'd within the Kingdom Page 34. Not the Power in being while uncapable by being out of Possession to exercise any Act belonging to the Suppeam Power So. Pa. 37. according to this Doctrine neither he nor the Forces commissioned by him are to be resisted Nor is our King to expect Assistance from such Men in other Exigencies Taxes indeed 't is confest are to be paid as a Salary for his protecting them Page 56. for this very cause that he attends continually upon the Government Yet it may be a Question whether they would not think that the others presence might discharge or transfer the Taxes But as for our Endeavours to keep King William in his Station by our Arms according to this Divine It can only be so far our Duty as it is lawful so to do which is as much as to say it is no Duty at all but is left indifferent whether you will exercise your lawful Power or no. Page 56. Nor says he Do I find St. Paul inculcating it as any part of our Subjection to the higher Powers This goes upon the Notion of a certain Leading Man who makes Non-Resistance to be absolute Subjection and as much as can or ought to be required by the Soveraign Power as if active Obedience to lawful Commands were not in the least imply'd in being subject But I take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word which the Apostle uses chiefly to import Action in a regular Discharge of the Duties of an Inferiour to his Supeour and when St. Peter uses the same Word in Relation to every humane Ordinance or Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I would gladly know whether 't is meant of the Fountain and Derivation of Power or else of the Commands issuing from the Power If the first then the right of the late King was not Vid. History of Passive Obedience Page 106. as some contend such as no Religion no Law no Fault or Forfeiture can alter or diminish If the last then active Obedience to lawful Commands is required by the very Letter but I cannot see how the same Text should require passive Obedience to unlawful Commands any more than it does active and whoever does not actively obey the lawful ones Page 59. does as much resist the Power nay more than he who resists a Person assuming a Power which never was given him by God or Man. He says farther Nor doth our Law since the Cessation of the Tenure of Knights Service require it personally of all Subjects at least we of the Clergy cannot be concern'd in it because we by so many Statutes are exempted from bearing Arms. Herein he shews that he talks out of his Profession for as to Personal Service whatever might be requisite in Grand Serjeanty by which a Man is to be the King's Champion or the like in his own Person 't is evident Knights Service was not personal for otherwise it