Selected quad for the lemma: master_n
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A47255
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A dialogue between two friends occasioned by the late revolution of affairs, and the oath of allegiance by W.K. ...
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Kennett, White, 1660-1728.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing K300; ESTC R16675
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26,148
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42
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A DIALOGUE BETWEEN TWO FRIENDS LICENSED James Fraser April 22 1689. A DIALOGUE BETWEEN Two Friends Occasioned by the late REVOLUTION OF AFFAIRS And the OATH OF ALLEGIANCE By W. K. A. M. Rom. 14. 22. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in what he alloweth LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXIX A DIALOGUE BETWEEN TWO FRIENDS A JACOBITE and a WILLIAMITE Jac. MEthinks we live in an Age of Wonders Affrica like every day producing aliquid novi But few Months since Suspension Degradation Imprisonment was too little punishment for refusal to read the King's as 't was stil'd Gracious Declaration for Liberty of Conscience And now I am as much Disaffected to the Protestant Cause for making some Objections against the Oath of Allegiance Will. 'T is true the wonderful Revolution of a few days is so unfathomably Stupendious that an ordinary Capacity may easily be induc'd to believe that Miracles are not yet ceased Such signal Methods compassing such an unthought of Rescue loudly declare they are more than common And your obstinate refusal of a Deliverance written in such legible Characters your voluntary depriving your self of a share in so great and unparallel'd a Blessing is a second wonder to me incomprehensible Jac. 'T is not I protest from an affected singularity or a too high conceitedness of my own Opinion that like Athanasius I oppose the whole World by my self The only reason is that I may keep a Conscience void of offence both toward God and Man. I acknowledge the Prince of Orange has been the great Instrument of our Deliverance from Popery and Arbitrary Power and more highly deserves of the Nation than can be expressed yet I cannot forget those Tyes and Obligations that fix and river our Allegiance to our Dread Sovereign James the Second Will. What are these strong and binding Obligations Jac. In number ten thousand in nature superlatively Obligatory Will. Descend to Particulars and nominate one Jac. The Dictates of Nature bind me to Natural Allegiance being by Birth a Natural Subject to the King of Great Britain my Duty is to pay Homage and Obedience either Active or Passive to all his Commands Will. I readily grant that as you are a Subject to the King of Great Britain his Majesty hath an undoubted Right to challenge your Obedience but the Ground and Reason of this Right does not proceed as an Emanation from Nature as I shall immediately evince when I have gotten a right sence of your Notion of Passive Obedience Jac. By Passive Obedience I understand a submissive and patient suffering the Punishment due to the obstinate refusal of Actively obeying those Commands and Injunctions of my Superiors that are either inconsistent with or opposite to the Laws and Precepts of the Divine Creator Will. Patience under Punishment when Legally inflicted upon us and there is no lawful way to escape it is a Christian Duty as is clear and obvious both from the Doctrine and Example of our Saviour who despised the shame and endured the Cross. But if Passive Obedience as you interpret it be Sence Logicians are much mistaken in affirming ten Predicaments since in your account Actio and Passio are one Obedience in all Histories whether Sacred or Prophane has no relation to suffering but always signifies the doing things commanded Thus Exod. 15. 26. If thou wilt hearkâ—n to the voice of the Lord and do that is right in his sight Exod. 24. 7. After Moses had read the Book of the Law the People promised their Obedience to do all that was there injoyned them And 1 Sam. 28. 19. King Saul for not doing the Command of the Lord was stigmatized with the infamus Character of Disobedience notwithstanding his suffering the punishment of his Transgression Acts 5. 29. the Apostles affirm they ought to obey that is Do the Will of God rather than Man. And all those Express and Positive Commands for Wives Children and Servants to obey their Husbands Parents and Masters only import 't is their Duty to please them well by doing those things enjoin'd by them In opposition to this Passive naturally implies suffering the Penalty for not doing so that should we allow such a contradiction in Speech as Passive Obedience 't would naturally follow that those who have suffered the punishment of the Law are justified by the Law for if Suffering render Men obedient the Penalty being endured they are cleansed from their Guilt and become Immaculate And by virtue of this Argument Rebels Thieves Murtherers or the worst of Villians are after they have receiv'd the Reward of their Transgressions as honest Men as good Neighbours and as Loyal Subjects as your self I know 't is objected that Rebels Thieves c. are actual Transgressors of the Laws both Humane and Divine and so fall as Criminals but the others suffer because they refuse to violate or transgress those Laws But to this 't is replyed that according to your own Position they are Criminals alike for the Doctrine of Passive Obedience especially as by you defined doth sufficiently evidence notwithstanding what you talk of Laws that the Will of the Supreme Magistrate is the chiefest Rule we are to walk by for whatever Command brings with it Authority to require Obedience that very Authority doth plainly impress upon it the Character of a Law. Now Criminals upon the account of Omission are equally guilty with those that have render'd themselves so by Sins of Commission it being equally the same as to matter of Crime not to do those things Commanded and to act or do those things Prohibited So that by parity of Reason if the one be justified so will the other for facinus quos inquinat aequat Jac. I had no design to enter into a Controversie about Passive Obedience I asserted that Nature enjoined me to pay Allegiance to the Supreme Magistrate and my Reason was because I was by Birth a Natural Subject Will. That Nature obliges you to Obedience is a great Mistake for the constitutes no Subordination among Men as we are produced by her we are all Equals she ordains neither King or Peasant Lord or Slave Her Actions are only internal such as respect not those outward Adjuncts or external Qualifications The Laws she designs for our Guide are her own Precepts viz. those Innate Notions of Good and Evil those Common Sentiments of Vertue and Vice that are proper to all men as they are Rational Creatures The Governour she appoints over us is every man 's own Reason the Judge our particular Consciences 'T is indeed by the Force or Energy of Nature we are made Men but we are born free This is evident from that absolute Authority every particular Man hath over himself viz. an independent Power in disposing of his own person Thus by Compact or Bargain any Man I speak of Subjects may become a Covenant-Servant an Apprentice or a Slave without Nature's being concern'd in the Contract For
As 't is more safe and prudent to bear with a little uneasiness in a particular Member conditionally it endanger not the other parts than hazard the Health of the whole Body by churlish Physick to redress that Tollerable Inconvenience The Duties of Obedience the Gospel enjoyns is to lawful Authority not to illegal or imposed Jurisdiction not an Arbitrary Power It condemns not our desending our selves from apparent Ruine and Destruction and permits us to dispute our Rights with our Princes without that infamous Character of Rebels Besides Rom. 13. was written on purpose to confute that fond Opinion of the Jews before mentioned that they were so immediately in Covenant with God that no Foreiner had Authority to oblige them to obedience This the Apostle condemns by a positive Command to the contrary saying Let every scul be subject to the higher powers and withal shews them the Reasonableness of this Precept because the powers that be whether Pagan or Jewish are ordained of God inferring that they living under the Ordinance of God are obliged to be subject unto it Verse the Second he illustrates the heinousness of the sin of opposing Lawful Authority in the Execution of Legal Commands both from the Ordinance it self and the punishment due to the Transgression of it And perswades persons in these Christian Circumstances who were daily violating the Established Laws of the Empire patiently to suffer and quietly submit to the Legal Execution of the Laws Because opposition made by such persons was resisting the Ordinance of God the punishment of which is Damnation He farther Illustrates that this was the end why Rulers were Ordained their Business and chief Occupation being to punish such Violaters of the Laws as lived in an open Contempt and Transgression of them And therefore plainly tells them they must be subject there 's a necessity laid upon them not only for fear wrath compulsion or punishment the alone Obligations that had power to keep the Jews in Subjection but also for Conscience sake And for the same Reason enjoyns them to pay Tribute Render therefore to all their due tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honour to whom honour From hence 't is clear and manifest the Apostle did not command those Christians to subject themselves to an unlimited or Arbitrary Power but to render Obedience to the express and publick Laws of the Empire because these Laws only could determine how much Tribute Fear or Honour Superiors challenged and Inferiors ought to pay The same Doctrine also St. Peter teaches 1 Epist. 2. where observing the Heathens distinguished not between the Jews converted to the Christian Religion and those which retained the Mosaic Principles who for the above-mentioned Cause became the most obstinate turbulent factious and seditious People imaginable upon all occasions exerting their utmost endeavours to raise Tumults and embroil the State in Civil wars The Apostle to dehort the Christians from the Belief and Practice of that wicked Principle earnestly perswades them not to follow the Example of that obstinate and head-strong People but by their regular and meek Behaviour quiet and candid Carriage to approve themselves to the Heathen Governours by submitting to the Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake That is Render all due Allegiance not only to Jewish but Heathen Governours even to Claudius Drusus in whose Reign the Ancients affirm this Epistle to be written though the Emperour Claudius were elected to the Imperial Throne by the Pretorian Band in opposition to the Design both of City and Senate This very Doctrine also St. Paul commands Titus to teach his Flock Chap. 3. ver 1. And those parallel places those most express and positive Commands Colos. 3. 18 22. Wives submit your selves to your own Husbands Servants in all things obey your masters are only Transcripts of this Doctrine For neither Wives nor Servants are obliged to obey or stigmatiz'd as disobedient for refusing to execute the illegal or wicked Commands of their Husbands and Masters Neither have the latter Power or Legal Authority to correct or punish such Disobedience Jac. If this be the Genuine Sense the Natural Signification of these places of Scripture how came the Primitive Fathers to interpret them in another Sense And why doth St. Paul affirm 2 Cor. 10. 4. that the weapons of Christians are not carnal Will. This is the very Doctrine those Fathers delivered as is evident from the Epistles of St. Polycarp and the Apologies of Justin Martyr Athenagoras and Tertullian to free the Christian Religion from those Aspersions of Sedition and Rebellion the Heathens accused it of and to justifie the Loyalty and Obedience of Christians to the Powers and Magistrates under which they lived Thus Till the Conversion of Constantine the Great to the Christian Faith the Evangelical Doctrine was always in opposition to the Established Laws of the Empire And in all Cases when the Divine Precepts were inconsistent with the Laws Established in the Empire the Christian Religion taught its Votaries quietly to submit and patiently to suffer the punishment due to the Transgression of these Laws without resistance or calumniating Language to take up their Cross and follow their Saviour This the Primitive Fathers did not only frequently inculcate to their Auditors but manifested their Doctrine as is evident from their Works very often by their own Sufferings But when the aforesaid Emperour had setled the Christian Religion and added the Civil Sanction viz. Established its Precepts as the Laws Imperial the Doctrine of the Gospel as to the suffering part was much altered In all former Mutations or Changes in the Government of the Empire the Christian Pastors constantly exhorted their Flocks to obey the Supream Powers not to calumniate or speak evil of Dignities but patiently to submit to the most barbarous Cruelties But when the Evangelical Doctrine and Discipline was Established by Law and Constantius the Emperour persecuted the Orthodox Clergy St. Hillary that Pious and Learned Father roundly tells the Emperour of his impious and unchristian Actions And when Julian Apostatized from the Faith banished the Gospel demolished the Churches and scoffingly told the Christians their Doctrine was to suffer an Eminent Man of that Age writ a Tract approved as Orthodox Doctrine by that Catholick and Renown'd Bishop Athanasius which tartly inform'd the Emperour That the Christian Religion when Established by Law allowed its Votaries to justifie their Rights and was not to be trampled upon ruined and destroyed to gratifie the Humour of an Ambitious and Idolatrous Prince That of St. Paul has no Relation to our present Discourse the Weapons there mentioned are no Shields or Bucklers against the Hostile Attempts of our Adversaries but such as the Church is invested with for the punishment of Criminal Members such as Excommunication Censures c. So that 't is clear and evident those places of Holy Writ that enjoyns Obedience to Superiors however express or emphatical in