Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	good_a	sin_n	transgression_n	4,384	5	10.5404	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45160	Two points of great moment, the obligation of humane laws, and the authority of the magistrate about religion, discussed together with the case which gave occasion to the first point : in opposition to the two authors, of the Friendly debate, and of the Preface to a late book of Bishop Bramhalls / by J.H.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.	1672 (1672)	Wing H3713; ESTC R4866	5,491	16

TWO POINTS OF GREAT MOMENT THE Obligation of Humane Laws AND The Authority of the Magistrate about Religion DISCUSSED Together with the Case which gave Occasion to the first Point In Opposition to the Two Authors of the Friendly Debate and of the Preface to a late Book of Bishop Bramhalls By J. H. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Printed Anno Domini 1672. TO THE BOOKSELLERS SIRS BE not Offended that I have Printed the late Book A Rebuke to the Prefacer my self for it being against one of your Licencers none of you durst do it I had reserved some of the former Book The Obligation of human Laws in Quires for such a purpose as this I have Corrected them with my own hand and Printed the sheet called The Case which was seized for this end only to be bound up with these remaining Copies I entend to give part of them to my friends and have but Sixty or Seventy to sell If the Buyer gives you not your first price raise it at next Asking for they are not like in all these Circumstances to get one of them again upon any Termes The Price of these few must be to You 20. d. to the Buyer 2. s. The Author The Case WHether a Non conformist before the KINGS DECLARATION who hath not taken the Oxford Oath might come to Live at London or at any Corporate Town or within Five Miles of it and yet be a good Christian How can that man be a Minister of Christ who is disobedient to his Soveraign And that even in those things wherein Christ and his Laws are not concerned The Law of the Land forbids the Nonconformist to live in London or within five miles of it But that is not repugnant to the Command of Christ and therefore he is not a good Subject and consequently not a good Christian much less such a Minister of Christ as he ought to be The Friendly Debate between the Conformist and Nonconformist By this one Passage in that Book I did take my Conjecture of the Author to be a person happy in his Expression and ingenious in his Disposition rather then deep in the Things he delivers or studious and reflective on those more Removes than one he ought to see who will play such a Game as this at once with all the Non-conformist Ministers in the Nation To bind the observation of all human Laws not sinful in the Fact upon the Conscience without distinction is the doing he knew not what An unmerciful Determination which being passed too upon that particular Oxford Act engaged me upon this point as seeming to me the most material to be considered of any in the Book both in regard of the loss the most were at what to Answer and the necessity of their Satisfaction seeing if we act not in Faith in what we do we sin The Paper besides some little more in the preamble then this was as follows I am sorry that any Person of so much candour latitude and ingenuity as I believe the Writer of this Book to have should be so unkind to his Brethren so unconscionably untender to express the thing as it is as to account That no man who transgresses an Act of Parliament such as for the Nonconformist to come within five miles of London can be a good Christian Alas how precise are some men as to the Law of the Land who are yet so angry at others for being strict to the Laws of God But does this Reverend Person indeed think that every transgression of a Statute of the Realm is no less than a deadly sin Or dare he wilfully judge here any otherwise than himself would be judged What then if a man shall live and die in the breach of Many Statutes which he knows and yet thinks nothing of it must such a one be certainly damned Or may a man live and die in a wilful known sin without Repentance and be saved Too rigorous were it sayes Mr. Hooker that understood himself here no doubt a little better that the breach of every Law should be so held a Mean there is between these extremities if so be we could find it out I must confess I have not read any to my remembrance that have ventured on the chalking out this Mean that I should gather satisfaction from it so that I must content my self with my own Sentiment which I shall readily deliver being glad at my heart if I can unloose any burden which many that are tender may be apt to bind on their Consciences when some that tye the same would be loth to touch them with their little fingers The Magistrate I account with the Apostles Apostle is the Minister of God for the Peoples good If he command in order to that end I think his Commands ought to be obeyed not only for fear of his Sword but for Conscience sake But if he command any thing for the Peoples hurt or that which evidently is not for their good I think his Command if the matter be not sin is yet to be obeyed for Wrath sake and so not to be contemned but I think not any obligation lyes on the Conscience if it can be avoided without contempt or scandal that it should be done We must distinguish here between the authority that resides in the Person and the authority of this or that his particular Command I do apprehend that when any Command or Law does require that which is Morally or Civilly evil every such Command or Law is really divested of authority and so may be left undone without breach on a man's Conscience yet if a man be brought to question about it he must suffer because the authority which resides still in the Person must be submitted to as to the Ordinance of God He must not resist that is express and rather than resist he must suffer whereas if he could avoid it without resistance he was not bound in good earnest either to do or suffer Where we are not obliged ad agendum ad patiendum sayes Grotius tum demum ubi poena evitarinisi vi opposita non potest De Imp. sum pot c●rou sac p. 98. The reason of this at the bottom lyes here and is firm Power in the Magistrate or Civil power which is the ground of subjection does not lye in might strength or force but in right Potestas say Political writers is jus imperands This right in the nature of the thing must arise from the Grant or Will of the supream Lord which is God without whose Will or that Grant or Charter which is an act of his will no Power can be derived to any Now that grant or will of God which constitutes any to Rule or to be his Minister being for the Peoples weale He is the Minister of God for our weale sayes the text it must follow that whatsoever is not indeed for the Peoples weale the Magistrate is not to command because it is God's will that he commands only for their weal.

And if he do command any matter that is otherwise that Command hath no Authority as to the Conscience at all as being without the warrant of God 's will This is such Doctrine which is plain bottom'd and irrefragable He is the Minister of God for thy good saith St. Paul otherwise he is not God's Minister and hath to other purposes none of God's power Dr. Taylor in his Cases l. 3 p. 35. Quod necessariam non habet conjunctionem cum fine publici commodi non potest praecipi lege humana sayes Suarez from the Schools One difficulty onely there is which is this Who shall judge whether a Law be for the peoples Weal or not I answer The Magistrate must judge as to the Making the Law and we must judge as to our Obedience to it My Reason I give as readily Because God hath made every man the Judge of his own Actions and consequently of all the Circumstances whether they are agreeable or not agreeable to his will for his forbearance or doing of them so that it is not according to the resolution of any others Conscience but of his own or the Judgement of Private Discretion he shall be justified or not justified in his walking before him Let a Law then be promulgated wherein a man is concerned I thus determine If he deal uprightly that is as a Christian to use industriously this persons word and in his Conscience does judg that the Law is good I mean good for the general whether their spiritual or temporal good I do apprehend he is obliged in Conscience to the obeying that Law at least so far as his particular obedience is conducive to that good though the keeping of it otherwise be to his own disadvantage or private loss If he judges it not good I do suppose he may do well in prudence to be wary and do perhaps as others do and not run himself into harm's way But really if he observes it not he is to make no Conscience of it as if the thing offended God whether he does it or leaves it undone And here is that very Mean indeed it self for ought I know quod desideratur To wit That the Laws or Commands of the Magistrate even in political and indifferent things does no less than bind the Conscience when he is the Executioner of Gods Will But though the Outward man out of the case of sin may be bound if you will the Conscience cannot be obliged and ought to be still kept free when he is the Executioner only of his Own-Humane Laws says the fore-mentioned excellent Doctor and Bishop bind the Conscience of the Subjects but yet give place to just and charitable Causes Which are competent and sufficient is not expresly and minutely declared but it is to be defined by the moderation and prudence of a good man I know not how this Author may receive this from whom I expect more ingenuity than from many others that is to yield to second considerations But methinks if he had not thought at first when he wrote of any thing besides he might at least have considered that there be Laws which of themselves grow out of date and that it is not Time so much that brings on them their decay as the apprehension of them to be unreasonable unfit or unprofitable to the Land When a Law therefore is by general tacit allowance and practise of the Nation had no longer in regard it is to be accounted as virtually obsolete and so it binds not There was a Law made this Parliament about Carts Waggons for the better keeping the High-wayes which being found quickly inconvenient to the Waggoners unanswerable we may suppose to the End it was scarce a Month or two but they heard no more of it I will put a Case now of Conscience to this Person Suppose a man whose living consists in his Waggon and unless he puts more Horses in his Team in his coming up to London than this Law will allow he must give off his Trade or be undone I ask What shall this fellow do By the Doctrine of this Book for ought I can see he can be no good Subject and consequently no good Christian if he goes on I will ask again What thinks the Author of those that die and are buried in the iniquity of Linnen Whether the Women generally of this Nation who cannot abide to have the dead wrapt in Flannel but being used so much to controul their Husbands at home will not be ruled by both Houses to do any otherwise herein than what they think is handsomest for all them are in capacity without their amendment in this point to be saved For my own part I think verily the latter of these Laws being intended and tending directly to the particular good of the Nation it ought in Conscience to have been kept yet seeing the very humour only of the Women hath discountenanc'd it so that in the general usage it is annull'd I dare not say that any man does sin that observes it not I dare not say that Wife can be no good Christians that buries here Husband in his shirt As for the Act it self of Oxford I cannot pass methinks without the observation of God's providence toward that great Person who in his Speech that Session so industriously declared himself the Designer Since the Parliament at Oxford it hath been visible sayes he that my credit hath been very little He who had contrived the Banishment of others from their houses by that Act leaves this passage in his Letter at his own departure out of the Realm For the Oath imposed as the condition of the Nonconformists lawful coming to this City or any other Corporation by that Oxford Act there are the Nonconformists Exceptions against it proposed in that Book entituled A Defence of the Proposition If the Author of this Debate or that ingenious Person who they say is writing something about Ecclesiastical Polity for the justifying present Impositions or that worthy Person his associate who is particularly engaged to it can Answer them let them try This I must say that I suppose the chief of those things which stick in good earnest upon the sober Nonconformist and which others do not or dare not speak out are there offered against that Oath and against Vniformity If they shall set down the words fairly and candidly and answer them satisfactorily they shall do well But if they do not after this notice the world shall account indeed they cannot and what they say otherwise must signifie nothing I will conclude with Grotius and return to my Theme Leges humanae vim obligandi tum demum habent si latae sint ad humanum modum non si on us injungant quod a ratione natura plane abhorreat If you ask at last How this Sheet comes out thus alone without others against this Debate with it I must say What shall a man do when the Press is become so like the Hedge-hog's Den that when they have one door open still for themselves they will be sure to stop the other where the least wind can but come in to blow upon them FINIS ☞ This should be put at the end of the ensuing Book THe Office to wit of the Magistrate and exercise or administration being distinguished you truly say that he that is not bound in a particular case 〈◊〉 obey yet may be a Subject still which is the relation of one bound to ordinary obedience and Rebellion which is the casting off this subjection is forbiden notwithstanding a particular law may be disobeyed A Law made against God or the safety of the Common-wealth is no Law in sensu univoco but it is in sensu aequivoco vel analogico and does not properly bind the Subject All men in their wits that are masters of such discourse are agreed that Judicium est vel publicum vel privatum Publicum est vel Civile Magistratus per gladium exequendum Vel Ecclesiasticum Pastorum per verbum claves exequendum Et privatum discretionis est omnium No Man ever obeyed without it for authoritas imperantis agnita is the objectum formale obedientiae and answereth the question Quare obedis The Magistrate being by Office intrusted with the bonum publicum the Subject is not called to try every one of his Laws whether they are suited to the bonum publicum or not much less to be critical and busie out of his place But being not bound to be blind or careless in a notorious case or such of which he hath full and lawful cognizance he may and must discern what commmand is against the common good Richard Baxter