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A41285 A second speech of the Honovrable Nathanael Fiennes, second son to the right honourable the Lord Say, in the Commons House of Parliament touching the subjects liberty against the late canons and the new oath. Fiennes, Nathaniel, 1607 or 8-1669. 1641 (1641) Wing F878; ESTC R8459 10,471 24

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to his friend nay if any man should abett or maintaine an opinion contrary thereunto though it were but in Parliament if he thought it fit to be altered by this Canon hee is excommunicate ipso facto and lyeth under the same consideration and is lyable to the same punishment as if he had maintained an opinion against the Deity of CHRIST and of the Holy Ghost and of our Justification by the satisfaction of Christ Sir if in things that are in their owne Nature indifferent if in things disputable it shall be as heynous to abett or maintaine an opinion as in the most horrible and monstrous heresies that can bee imagined what liberty is left to us as Christians What liberty is left to us as men I proceed to the sixt Canon wherein these Canonists have assumed to themselves a Parliamentary power and that in a very high degree in that they have taken upon them to impose new Oathes upon the Kings Subjects Sir under favour of what hath beene alleaged to the contrary to impose an Oath if it bee not an higher power then to make a Law it is a power of making a Law of a most high Nature and of higher and farther consequence then any other Law and I should much rather chuse that the convocation should have a power to make Lawes to bind my person and my estate then that they should have a power to make Oathes to bind my conscience a Law binds mee no longer then till another Law be made to alter it but my Oath bindes mee as long as I live Againe a Law bindes mee either to obedience or to undergoe the penalty inflicted by the Law but my Oath bindes mee absolutely to obedience And lastly a Law binds me no longer then I am in the Land or at the farthest no longer then I am a Member of the State wherein and whereby the Law is made but my Oath once being taken doth bind mee in all places and in all conditions so long as I live Thus much J thought good to speake concerning the power of imposing new Oathes as to the matter of this new Oath it is wholy illegall It is aginst the Law of this Land it is against the Law and Light of Nature it is against the Law of GOD it is against the Lawes of this KINGDOME And that no obscure Lawes nor concerning any meane or pettie matters It is against the Law of the Kings Supremacie in that it maketh Arch-bishops Bishops Deanes Arch-Deacons c. to be jure Divino whereas the Law of this Land hath annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme not onely all Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction but also all Superiority over the Ecclesiasticall State and it is to bee derived from him by Commission under the great Seale and consequently it is Jure humano Againe it is against the Oath of Supremacy established by Law point blanck for therein I am sworne not onely to consent unto but also to assist and to the uttermost of my power to defend all Jurisdictions preheminence c. annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme of which this is one and that which immediately precedeth this Oath in the Statute and whereunto it doth especially relate That his Majestie may exercise any Jurisdictions or Ecclesiasticall government by his Commission under the great Seale directed to such persons as hee shall thinke meet so that if hee shall thinke other persons more meet then Arch-bishoos Bishops c. I am sworne in the Oath of Supremacie not onely to assent thereunto but to assist and to the uttermost of my power to defend such an appointment of his Majesty and in this new Oath J shall sweare never to consent unto such an alteration In the like manner it is against the Law and Light of Nature that a man should sweare to answere c. to he knowes not what It is against the Law and light of Nature that a man should sweare never to consent to alter a thing that in its owne nature is alterable and may prove inconvenient and fit to be altered Lastly it is against the Law of God for whereas there are three rules prescribed to him that will sweare aright that he sweare in Judgement in Truth and righteousnesse hee that shall take this new Oath must needs breake all these three Rules He can not sweare in judgement because this Oath is so full of ambiguities that hee can not tell what hee sweares unto not to speake of the unextricable ambiguity of the c. There is scarce one word that is not ambiguous in the principall parts of the Oath as First What is meant by the Church of England whether all the Christians in England or whether the Clergie onely or onely the Arch-bishops Bishops Deanes c. or whether the Convocation or what In like manner it is as doubtfull what is meant by the Discipline and what by the Doctrine of the Church of England for what some call superstitious Jnnovations if others affirme to be consonant to the Primitive and that the purest Reformation in the time of Edward the 6. and in the beginning of the Reigne of Queene Elizabeth and so for the Doctrine of the Church of England if all the Positions that of later yeares have beene challenged by some of our Divines to bee Arminian and Popish and contrary to the Articles of our Religion and which on the other side have beene asserted and maintained as consonant to the Doctrine of our Church and if the Articles of Religion were gathered together they might make a prety volume nay Sancta Clara will maintaine it in despight of the Puritanes that the Doctrine of the Church of Rome is the Doctrine of the Church of England Truely it were very fit that we knew what were the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England before we sweare to it and then Sir give me leave to say that J should bee very loath to sweare to the Discipline or to the Doctrine and Tenents of the purest Church in the World as they are collected by them farther then they agree with the Holy Scriptures Lastly it is as doubtfull what is meant by the Doctrine and Discipline established and what by altering and consenting to alter whether that is accompted or established which is established by act of Parliament or wheter that also that is established by Canons Injunctions c. and whether it shall not extend to that which is published by our Divines with the allowance of authority and so for consenting to alter whether it be onely meant that a man shall not be active in altering or whether it extend to any consent and so that a man shall not submit to it nor accept of it being altered by the State More ambiguities might be shewen but these are enough to make it cleere that hee that shall take this Oath cannot sweare in judgement Nor can he sweare in truth for it is full of untruthes It is not true that Discpline