Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	act_n	king_n	power_n	3,247	5	5.0875	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36485	A discourse concerning the signification of allegiance, as it is to be understood in the new oath of allegiance	Downes, Theophilus, d. 1726.	1689 (1689)	Wing D2082; ESTC R1366	36,235	28

duty to support that Government which God himself has established over him 2. It is evident also from the universal practice and consent of almost all Nations This might be evinced from an Induction of particulars But I think it will not be denied by any that where-ever Civil Government has been established and in what from soever it has been always thought the Duty of every good Citizen or Subject to adhere to the Sovereign power of his Country against all his Enemies and even to adventure his own life for the preservation of it And hence it is that there is hardly any Government in the World wherein every individual Person that is capable of bearing Arms is not obliged upon some great occasions personally to assist the Sovereign Power and hazard his life in its defence And this is a manifest Indication that the Duties of Allegiance were first taught Men by the Light of Nature since the universal exacting of them can be ascribed to nothing else but such an universal Principle Wherefore Dr. Sanderson had reason to affirm That the Bond of Allegiance doth not arise Originally from the Oath of Allegiance but it is so intrinsecal proper and essential a Duty and as it were fundamental to the relation of a Subject quà talis as that the very name of a Subject doth after a sort import it insomuch that it hath thereupon gained in common Usage of Speech the stile of Natural Allegiance Whence he affirms these Inferences will follow 1 That the Bond of Allegiance whether sworn or not sworn is in the nature of it perpetual and indispensable 2. That it is so inseparable from the relation of a Subject that tho' the exercise of it may be for some time suspended by a prevailing force yet it cannot be so absolutely removed but that it still remaineth virtually in the Subject and obligeth to an actual exercise of it upon all fit occasions 3. That no Subject of England that hath either by taking the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance acknowledged or otherwise believeth that the Sovereign Power to whom his Natural Allegiance is due is the King his Heirs and lawful Successors can without sinning against his Conscience enter into any Covenant Promise or Engagement or do any other Act whatsoever whereby either to transfer his Allegiance to any other Party to whom it is not of Right due or to incapacitate himself to perform it to his lawful Sovereign when it may appear serviceable to him And what was asserted by this great Casuist is for the substance of it deliver'd by the great Oracle of the Law who in the aforementioned Case reports that these Positions were debated and resolved on by all the Judges First That the Ligeance of the Subject is due by the Law of Nature Secondly That the Law of Nature is part of the Law of England Thirdly That the Law of Nature was long before any Municipal Law. Fourthly That it is immutable It appears says he by demonstrative reason that Ligeance of the Subject to the Sovereign was before any Municipal or Judicial Laws First For that Government and Subjection were long before any Municipal Laws Secondly It had been in vain to have prescribed Laws to any but to such as owed Ligeance before frustr à enim feruntur leges nisi subditis obedientibus Seeing then that Ligeance is due by the Law of Nature it follows that the same cannot be altered or taken away For albeit Municipal Laws have in several times and places imposed several punishments for Breach of the Law of Nature yet the Law of Nature it self never was nor could be changed and this says he appears plainly and plentifully in our Law-Books And afterwards he argues thus upon the same Principle Whatsoever is due only by Law and Constitution of Man may be alter'd but naturally the Ligeance of the Subject to the Sovereign cannot be alter'd therefore it is not due only by the Law and Constitution of Man. And again Whatsoever is due by the Law of Nature cannot be altered but Allegiance is due by the Law of Nature therefore it cannot be alter'd Thus far that famous Lawyer and thus far have I consider'd the signification of Allegiance as it is founded in the Laws and explained by Lawyers I am further to consider it as a word of vulgar signification also and as it is taken and understood by the Generality of the People of this Nation For all the Subjects of this Kingdom being obliged by Law and immemorial Custom to swear Allegiance to their Sovereign it is not credible they should be ignorant of the true meaning of it Those Law terms in which few are concern'd are by few understood but such as are of universal concernment must of necessity be also universally understood Who knows not the meaning of Parliament Jury Assizes that is of any understanding The word Allegiance is of more near and universal concernment to all Men it is therefore presum'd that no Subject can be ignorant of it The Oaths themselves which the Subjects have ever been enured to have sufficiently taught them the Duties intended by it That they must pay due Obedience to the King that they must never assist his Enemies that they must uphold his Crown and sometimes adventure even their Lives and Fortunes in his Service Thus much Nature it self does teach them as it teaches Children to discharge the same Duties towards Parents But there is no need of proving a thing to be that which it is Most certain it is that all Men of tolerable understanding even among the common People do know that all these Duties are included in true Allegiance Ask any Man of common sense whether he who has sworn true Faith and Allegiance to K. W. does not violate his Oath if at any time he assist K. J. to dethrone him Whether he is not bound to be faithful to him against all his Enemies To discover all the designs of K. J. against him that shall come to his knowledge And when it is in his power and necessity requires it to contribute his actual Assistance also to oppose his Recovery of the Crown I make no Question but he will answer that his Allegiance binds him to all this and that he is plainly perjur'd if he does not perform it The Understandings of the common People as they are not capable of those Subtilties which men of Learning are enur'd to so are they seldom perverted with those nice and sophistical Distinctions by which men of Subtilty perplex things plain and easie in themselves A Mechanick and a Peasant apprehend what Motion is and what is Perjury as well as the acutest Philosopher or the deepest Divine and they know what Allegiance and Faithfulness imply as well as the ablest Lawyer and if you go about to blunder their understandings with Distinctions and Objections they are but where they we 〈…〉 and will still clearly apprehend what they understood before And if