Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	law_n	moral_a	precept_n	2,880	5	9.5945	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70864	Concordia discors, or, The dissonant harmony of sacred publique oathes, protestations, leagues, covenants, ingagements, lately taken by many time-serving saints, officers, without scruple of conscience ... by William Prynne, Esq. ...	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1659 (1659)	Wing P3928; ESTC R22150	38,103	48

have a tacit condition in it violated and dispensed within this case it being not simplie evil in its own nature to spare the Gibeonites upon their submission but onlie a prohibited evil by particular Precepts than his Name prophaned dishonoured Religious Oaths wittinglie infringed and perjurie committed by his own people against his moral Law Precept being sinful scandalous in their own nature and of dangerous consequence to all Posteritie if admitted approved to encourage them to commit perjurie and violate all lawfull Oaths Covenants in succeeding Ages to the scandal of Religion and prejudice of Mankind Wherefore this Oath League though against these judicial Precepts not only firmly bound the Princes who made them and all the Congregation in that Age but King Saul himself and all the Israelites in succession four hundred years after Of which we have another President of Joshuaes and the Israelites care to perform their Spies Oaths made to Rahab and sworn unto her by the Lord to save her her Parents Kindred and Family alive though Canaanites devoted by God to destruction Iosh. 2. 1 to 24. compared with c. 6. 21 22 23. Heb. 11. 31. But our Oaths Protestation League Covenant were all made not to or with Amorites or Canaanites particularly deuoted by God to the Sword Slaughter and utter extirpation without any Truce or League of Peace but to and with our own hereditary lawfull Christian Kings their Heirs Posterities and Successors whose Persons Lives Crowns Rights and Royal Authoritie we are all expresly obliged commanded by God himself to defend protect with our own lives fortunes estates to the uttermost of our Powers against all Attempts Treasons Conspiracies Traytors and Invasions whatsoever yea precisely prohibited to offer the least violence injury to their Persons Lives and Regal Authority in thought word or deed Prov. 24. 20 21. Eccles. 8. 2 c. 10. 10. 1 Sam. 24. 3 to 20. c. 26. 8 to 12. 2 Sam. 1. 12 c. c. 4. 10 11 2 Sam. 18 3 c 21 17 Estch 2. 21. 12. 23. c. 6. 2 Rom 13. 1 2. 3. 1 Pet. 2 12. 13 17. Tit. 3. 1 1 Tim 2. 2. 3. John 18 36. Therefore our Oaths League Covenant are much more obliging and conscienciouslie to be observed by us and our Posterities for ever than theirs to the Gibeonites as the only ready way to our peace and settlement 10ly This League of theirs to the Gibeonites was ratified only with one single Oath yet it bound both them and their Posterity but ours to our Kings their Heirs and Successors is ratified with seven successive Oaths Protestations Covenants here recited besides sundry others of like nature taken by our Ancestors in former Ages which I pretermit Therefore much more strong indissoluble obliging to us and our posterities than theirs If a threefold cord be not easily broken Eccles. 4. 12. much more then a sevenfold Oath successively renued should not easily or quicklie be broken but remain inviolable to all posteritie 11. The violation of this Oath League to the Gibeonites by Saul and the Israelites near 400 years after its first making when perchance quite forgotten by them or conceived to be unbinding to them as gotten by surprise as not made or taken by themselves personal to the Gibeonites and Israelites then living when first made or at least expired and grown quite out of date by so long a tract of time was reputed by God himself a great sinne perjury in them and exemplarie punished by God with three years famine on the whole Land though Saul and the Israelites then living never took this Oath nor made that League themselves but onlie their Ancestors so long time before their births Therefore our violations of the forecited Oaths Protestation League Covenant so freshlie made taken sworn subscribed with hands lifted up to Heaven successivelie one after another by whole Parliaments the generalitie of our Nation and not onlie by our deceased Ancestors but by our selves in person and so oft reiterated yet infringed by us time after time in the highest degree most needs be a more detestable damnable Perjurie crime in the eyes of God than theirs and draw a more long-lasting famine and other sorer judgements of God upon our particular Persons * Families Nation than that breach of their Oath and League with the Gibeonites brought down on them 12ly That Oath League continued in force to bind the Israelites both to observation and punishment when violated by King Saul and them after the whole frame of their Government was quite changed from a Principality or Common-wealth as most of our present Grandees would have it into a Kingship and Kingdom by the earnest unanimous desire consent of all the Elders of Israel the generality of the people and by Gods own approbation as is evident by the 1 Sam. c. 8 to c. 13. Josh. 9. 2 Sam. 21. compared together Therefore our Oath Protestation League Covanant forecited must by like reason consequence much more oblige our whole Nation in present and future to our Kings their Heirs and Successors notwithstanding all late violent forcible illegal Alterations Revolutions of our Governments and Governours against the Votes of both Houses of Parliament the desires of the generality of our three Nations since our Laws admit no Interregnum nor Disseisin of the Crown Kingship Kingdom as the Statutes of Praerogativa Regis 1 Iacobi ch. 1. Cooks 7 Rep. f. 10. and u other Lawbooks resolve And so our violations of them must be more perjurious sinfull and exemplarily punishable than theirs 13. This Oath League with the Gibeonites was violated by King Saul only out of zaeel to the Children of Israel Iudah who it seems solicited him thereunto for their own self-ends or advantage yet this was no sufficient excuse nor justification thereof in Gods esteem being punished with exemplarie justice on his posterity and a three years famine upon all the Land Therefore the violation of all our precedent Oaths Protestations Covenants by the Army-Officers confederate Members and their Adherents against the Votes of both Houses the dehortations of our Ministers and desires of our three whole Kingdoms must needs 〈◊〉 a far more detestable crime and be avenged with a more heavy punishment both on them and us than theirs was heretofore 14. This breach of Oath Covenant notwithstanding all circumstances which might extenuate it was most exemplary punished though not on Saul the chief Offendor during his life yet upon seven of his Sons and Family after his death in King Davids Reign 35 years after this Offence committed and upon the whole Nation by a three years famine though it was never infringed but only by one single Act in slaying some of the Gibeonites posterity and not re-violated by any other subsequent slaughter of them Therfore though many of the grand Infringers of the precedent Oaths Protestation Covenant may perchance scape scot-free for a time in their own persons and die without exemplary justice inflicted on them

them What shall I doe for you and Wherewith shall I make the Attonement that ye may blesse the Inheritance of the Lord And they said unto the King The man that consumed us and devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel let seven of his sons be delivered unto us and we will hang them up in Gibeah of Saul which the Lord did chuse which being accordingly done after that God was intreated for the Land and removed the famine 2 Sam. 1. 1. to 15. Here we have an Oath and Covenant binding the Israelites their Governours Heirs and posterity in perpetuitie to the Gibeonites and their posteritie which I shall parallel with our forementioned Oaths Protestation Covenant to our hereditarie Kings their heirs and successors to prove them more obliging to us and our posterities than this Oath League of the Israelites to the Gibeonites in regard of these observable circumstances particulars not hitherto insisted on by any which I beseech God in mercie to set home effectually upon all our hearts spirits consciences both for our information reformation settlement and avoiding Gods avenging justice on us and our posterities for our transcendent perjuries breach of Oathes and Covenants to our Soveraigns 1. This Oath and Covenant with the Gibeonites Embassadors was procured by meer fraud circumvention misinformation and apparent falshood arising meerly from those to whom it was made and sworn yet it obliged the Israelites and their posteritie to the Gibeonites and their progenie in perpetuitie But the forementioned Oathes together with the Protestation and Solemn League and Covenant were made without any fraud circumvention misinformation or false suggestion upon grounds of loyaltie dutie justice prudence christianitie Religion and State-policie voluntarily propounded by the makers takers of them and ratified in full Parliaments Therefore they must needs be farre more valid obligatory to the whole English Nation and their posterities than this Oath Covenant to the Gibeonites 2. This League and Oath was made very sodenly rashly unadvisedly without any advice with God and the whole Congregation or examining debating the truth of the Gibeonites suggestion yet it bound them when once made But our Oathes Protestation League Covenant were all made enacted enjoyned upon long and serious debate mature deliberation in several successive Parliaments Therefore ours must be much more obliging than theirs 3ly This League Oath was made only by the Princes of Israel without the Congregations privitie assent or advice who were discontented with and murmured against them for it yet it obliged both the Princes people and their posterities But our Oathes Protestation League and Covenant were made not only by all our Princes Nobles Peers but likewise by the whole House of Commons in full Parliaments and assented to by the whole English Nation both in and out of Parliament the * Commons being the original movers promoters contrivers of all or most of them Therefore they must be much more obligatorie to us and our po●eri●ies than theirs 4ly Their League Oath was never ratified by any publique Law or decree of the whole Congregation and people of Israel in any publike Convention but only by Ioshua and the Princes alone yet they bound the whole Nation Ours have been approved ratified established perpetuated by sundry successive Acts Ordinances Votes of Parliament from time to time continuing still in their full legal force Therefore much more valid and binding to us and our posterities than theirs 5ly That Oath League was taken sworn only by the Princes themselves not by the Congregation and people of Israel yet they were all obliged by them Our Oaths Protestation League Covenant have been sworn taken not only by all our Princes Nobles Officers of State Iustices but likewise by all or most of the Commons people of the Land from time to time both in and out of Parliament Therefore much more obliging to us and ours than theirs 6ly This Oath League of theirs to the Gibeonites was never taken and entred into for ought appears but once and that sodeinly without any subsequent renovation or ratification But our Oathes Protestation League Covenant have been swore taken again and again by all Members of Parliament Officers of State Iustices Graduates Lawyers Ministers most Souldiers and others upon sundry emergent occasions both in and out of Parliament Therefore much more obligatory to us and our posterities then theirs 7ly This Oath League for ought wee read was not made explicitly in precise terms with the Gibeonites their heirs and posteritie for ever but only indefinitely with the Gibeonites then in being whose lives they spared as the words import yet because they were a People State Citie Body politick having a permanent succession it virtually and intentionally in their own and Gods account too extended not only to the Gibeonites then living but to their succeeding issues in Sauls time near 400 years after and all succeeding Generations as q perpetual National Leagues use to do But our Oaths League Covenant in direct terms extend not only to our Kings to whom they were first made and sworn but likewise to their heirs successors and Royal Posterity for ever see 1 Jac. c. 1. 3. Jac. c. 4. 7 Jac. c. 6. 1 Eliz. c. 1. 3. Therefore they must needs be more binding to us our Heirs and Posterities in present and succeeding Generations than their to the Gibeonites 8ly Their League Oath was only with foreign Pagans Strangers who became their mere slaves and bondmen in perpetuitie and had not the least power jurisdiction over them yet it bound them to strict observation Ours are made sworn to our own Christian natural Kings Princes Soveraigns of our own flesh bloud Nation to whom we are natural borne Subjects and owe all dutifull allegiance by the Laws of God Nature Nations Therefore much more obliging to and most religiously to be kept by us and our posterities after us than theirs 9ly Which is most considerable this their Oath League was made with such an idolatrous remnant of the Ammonites as God himself by express precepts had commanded the Israelites to make no League nor Covenant with upon any terms but utterly to destroy with the edge of the sword without mercie without saving any of them alive Exod. 23. 32. c. 24. 12. 13. Deutr. 7. 1 2 3 c. c. 20. 16 17 18. Psal. 106. 34. 35. yet notwithstanding having once entred into a League with and sworn to them in the name of the Lord that they should live though by their own fraud circumvention and misinformation God was so jealous of his own name honour glory so unwilling that his own people should perjuriously treacherously perfidiously break their Oathe Covenant sworn in his name r being the highest the most sacred inviolable Obligations securities that can be betweene God and men man and man Nation and Nation that he would rather have his positive judicial Law which ſ some conceive to