Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	king_n	law_n	positive_a	3,676	5	11.2679	5	false

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81909	Conscience eased: or, the main scruple which hath hitherto stuck most with conscionable men, against the taking of the Engagement removed. Where amongst other things is shewed, first, how farre the oath of allegiance, and the nationall League and Covenant are obligations; either in their legall intents unalterable or at this time no more binding and alterable. Secondly. How farre in a free people the subordinate officers of the state, have a right to judge of the proceedings of a king in that state. Thirdly, how Zedekia'es case in breaking his oath to the king of Babylon, and our case in making use of our freedome from the oath of allegiance, and supremacie to the king of England doe differ. / The author, John Dury.	Dury, John, 1596-1680.	1651 (1651)	Wing D2841; Thomason E625_4; ESTC R206464	25,629	40

to those from whom the first trust doth proceed and to whose advantage or disadvantage the way of their administration doth finally redound whence it followes that these officers are bound both for their own safety for the obligatioÌ„ which lieth upoÌ„ them towards the state to judge both of the power which their superiour takes upon himselfe to exercise and whereof he pretends to have a right to have them his instruments and also of the manner and property of the worke which they are employed in lest they should under him at his will being led blindfold to obey become instruments of Tyrannie and injustice Thus the servants of Saul though souldiers who are otherwise bound to a most strict obedience justly refused to bee the executioners of his crueltie in killing the priests of the Lord. 1. Sam. 22. 17. The third sort of subordinate officers are such as are constituted by the joint consent concurrence of both as when the Representations of a free State viz the supream councell thereof agree with a governour whom they call and chuse that he shall place none in speciall offices under him The third by such as are set up by both Iointly for the administration of their publique concerments but such as shall be taken out of a certaine number whom they shall present unto him so that the Election of two or three Persons indefinitely as capable of the place is in the power of the Senate but the distinct appointment and nomination of one who is to have the place is left to the Supreme Governour Thus in the Low Countries Burgemasters of Towns Sheriffs of the Territories were constituted by the Prince who was their Governour in severall Provnces there elsewhere other Officers of State are constituted by such a concurrence of Election on the one and Nomination on the other side that the power of conferring authority is divided and the subordinate officers receive in their places a trust from both and become accountable unto both in severall respects These are the Customes and Constitutions of 2 2. Concerning the principle ground of subordination free Nations to prevent the abuse of Power in their Officers As for the Principle whence naturally Subordination doth proceed I conceive it to be the necessity of Unity and Order in a societie for the managemeÌ„t of publique affaires wherein all are concerned for to avoid the dissolving of Societies joint Relations and Duties belonging thereunto must be setled as a common interest and to avoid the confusion which would follow upon the managemeÌ„t of that interest if it were left to every one to doe in it what he should thinke good the Trust thereof must needs lie in some hands and the nature of that Trust must be determined by a law which should be the effect of the free consent of those that are interested in the Publique to provide the welfare thereof and because no single hand can be every where by it selfe at the same time to discharge a large Trust which hath many parts whereof the one is to bee made helpfull to the other therefore many are employed in order to one another and all to the originall of power by whom they are set aworke And concerning the direct Immediate end of subordination 3 3. Concerning the end of subordination it is to bring all transactions to one issue namely to the safety welfare of the Communalitie by the a dministration of duties according to lawes whereby every one is to have his due from another which is called Justice And the Indirect and Accidentall end of Subordination coordination of Officers under a Supream is to prevent by the bounds of offices and the distribution of Power belonging thereunto the Tyrannicall incroachment of Power into one single hand lest an absolute Arbitrary dominion be taken up over those who by the law of Nature and of Christianity being free put themselves voluntarily in an orderly Subjection to a Superiour power For in my apprehension all humane actions whether naturall or spirituall depend upon power I meane by power a might and strength to produce an effect and wheresoever God or men have disposed of power and placed strength to act for a publique interest there What is properly meant by authority is also a right to administer that power to that effect that is to put it forth towards others to that end This right I do call Authority because it intitles a man unblameablely to become the Author of the undertakings for which he hath received power and to bee a leader of others who should concurre therein with him this right or authority is not unlimited or commensurable only to the utmost extent of what power is able to do so that he who hath power may do with it what ever he will and can but it is bounded in nature by the end for which it is given and in societies of reasonable men by a law to become serviceable to a coÌ„mon good and if upon emergencies no positive law bee extant to determine the Circumstantiall way of using power and authority then the generall law of Nature and of Christianity is to take place which is the law of liberty by which all cases may bee determined so farre as to make our actions at least without offence if not also acceptable to those to whom they are done This law is give no occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another and the rule of this service is what ever you would have others Gal. 5. 13. Luke 6. 31. do to you do ye to them likewise To be in authority is to have a right to act in a place for the publique good so as to bee an author of some undertaking and to be obliged to lead others therein which obligation doth naturally arise from the trust of power put in the hands of him that hath received it to act towards those and for those that give it to the end for which it is bestowed whereof there is a cleer example in the power given to the constable of every parish who is obliged to be the author of publique undertakings in the sphere of the Trust reposed in him though otherwise he is a man of no respect Upon these grounds the subordinate Offices of a State may judge and act in their places for the publique good to prevent Tyranny and the incroachment of absolute power in him who is intrusted with the highest power and if these grounds be sound as I suppose they are they will cleare the justice and equitie of the Parliament proceedings in their late Transactions with the King whereupon a change of Government is fallen out in this State which being brought about by the Supremacy of power in the Representatives of the people and by a right to act for the publique good in the subordinate Officers of the State private Persons are bound to acquiesce thereat and to regulate their intentions

intention was not subordinate unto the publique at all but onely to some private aime or though it was truly in his thought subordinate thereunto but not agreeable to the Rules and Principles of Christianity and equitie I say if he findes himself mistaken either way he is bound to rectifie his mistake and bring his sense in observing the same unto the proportion of the forenamed Rules and Principles of Christianity and naturall equitie If these Propositions are to you as to me they are The application of these grounds to the scruple in haÌ„d shewing generally that to come out of it wee must consider sound and without exception I suppose they may shew you a way to come out of the strait whereinto your conscience is concluded for if you apply them to the case in hand concerning this present engagement with respect to former engagements and do make all their intents according to the circumstances wherein they were begotten commensurable one to another by the rules and principles of Christianity and naturall equitie you will find either no cause at all to take up in your mind such contradictory intentions as you have imagined to bee therein or if the circumstances of affaires shall bee found such as will inforce by these rules and principles to allow of a change of intentions in the latter which was not in the foâ—mer engagements then your spirit will be set at liberty from the strait wherein it is which proceeds only from the want of this due consideration as I conceive for when I put my selfe in your case which to give you an unpartiall advice I must do I find but two wayes to bee ridd of the scruple 1 1. That the same main intent is to be in all publique engagements wherein you are insnared the one is by looking upon the main intent and fundamentall duty which is the life and soule of all these engagements a thing unalterably one and the same in them all viz common safety and welfare to the prosecution of which by the law of God in right reason all publique engagements are at all times subordinate though the meanes and wayes diversly mentioned therein do varie The other is by looking upon the evedent emergencies 2 2. That the meanes are to be alterable by emergencies and the rules and principles of proceedings still the same which bring a change upon the meanes and wayes of prosecuting that intent for it is undeniable that as the Circumstances of Humane affaires alter so the Engagements to prosecute Common safety and welfare therein are alterable If then I can see that notwithstanding the changeablenesse of Emergencies and the varietie of meanes resulting from thence the same end is prosecuted by the same Rules and Principles I am still where I was and no more out of my way then if in a Voyage at Sea whiles I am steering the same course I have sometimes faire and sometimes foule weather or a winde sometimes on this sometimes on that side of the Ship which doth oblige the Marriners to nothing else but to trimme the Sails somewhat in another way and stand more or lesse carefully to their tackling Now to make some application of this to our Particularly that we should consider case I conceive whiles the King and Parliament did agree and the trust of Common safety was reposed in him by his observance of the Lawes The Oath of Allegiance like a faire gale in faire weather did carry us on peaceably towards the Haven of common safety but when he was judged to mannage his Trust unfaithfully as intending not to steare his course by Law but by will the Covenant first like a side-wind on the one hand came in with foule weather and then the Ingagement came in after it as a change of winde on the other side of the Ship both windes as it is naturall to all side-windes may serve to carry the Ship safely to her harbor if the Marriners trimme the Sailes well and the Passengers do not disturb them in their functions for if the same aim of common welfare is really intended by all three Ingagements though they put it under different expressions then you are not out of your way by taking any of them if contrary to the rules of Christianity you must put out your self out of it For that which in the Oath of Allegiance is required to be performed towards the jurisdictions annexed 1 1. That wherein all former engagements have one aime unto the Imperiall Crown of this Realme is termed in the Nationall Covenant the defence of the Kings Person and just Authority in the preservation of the true Religion and liberties of the Kingdomes all which in this present Ingagement is summed up and expressed by truth and faithfulness to the Common-wealth of England The King whiles he was in place of Trust was lookt upon as the Center of all common interests and the Guardian of publique safety next unto the Lawes Legislative power for indeed he is no King de jure further then he agrees with these and is a living Law in all his deportments but when he made himself Lawes and would by power have set himself up instead of the 2 2. What the emergencie was which did alter our relation to the King Law the Trustees of the Nation to whom the Legislative and the Executive power doth primarily belong thought it necessary to expresse the forenamed Interests instrusted to his management and therefore by the Oath of Allegiance fixed upon his name more directly properly and immediately by the name of a Common-wealth the safety of which was mainly intended by the Oath of Allegiance although the words thereof mention our relation onely to the King If then when you took the Oath of Allegiance your intention was not so much to oblige your self to the welfare of the Nation in that way of settlement Or to that way of settlement in order to Common welfare as to the maintaining of a meere Royall greatnesse for it self or to the maintaining of the Kings person in his Royall 3 3. What the mistake was might bee at first in taking the oath of allegiance which now is to be rectified greatnesse without respect to Common welfare you did wholly mistake the true and Legall intent of your Oath and because that such an imagination had crept insensibly upon the spirits of many by whom the King thought he could have exalted himself to be absolute above the Nations liberties therefore the Parliaments of both Nations finding that the name of a King was made an Idoll to the prejudice of that for which it was entertained joyned in the Covenant to rectifie that mistake by determining that the true notion of Common welfare and safety did mainly and more neerely stand in the maietenance of Religion and Libertie with the Rights and priviledges of Parliament then in the having of a King And since the Covenant hath been made void as to the

it 's owne nature alterable I conceive then that no everlasting obligement can bee brought upon the conscience of any man but by God himselfe in things by his authority made unalterable in their nature and except that you can shew me that the Imperiall jurisdictions meÌ„tioned in the oath of Allegiance and the Parliamentary priviledges and rights which then were are made by his authority of a nature unalterable I cannot allow you that by any engagemeÌ„t though never so strong whereby wee are bound unto them an everlasting and unalterable obligement can be brought upon any mans conscience Our oaths never to alter or to maintaine a forme of government in places and callings faithfully and truly doth not make the forme neither in it's owne nature nor as to us and to the publique unalterable by superiour powers upon emergencies they only bind us nor to bee accessary as privat men that is by private practices unto the alteration thereof so long as they are consistent with common safety which is only determinable by the supreme power of a nation for I suppose you never meant that those obligements should hold although all publique welfare and common safety should go to wrack for their sakes If then they were at the very time of their making to be understood as subordinate unto this condition that is to be alterable if upon emergencies they should be found contrary to common safety how can they bee counted an evelasting obligement as you would make them to bee can your particular oath predetermine you in humane affaires not to be obliged to yeeld to divine Providence therein or not to follow what is determined by the rules of Christianity and equitie You see then upon what grounds to my understanding the present engagement and former oaths either agree or are lawfully alterable without any just scruple of conscience to bee made by me in my place at the publique alteration thereof This is your main doubt and thus to me it is revealed The other doubts which you say your selfe lie not neer the heart of the businesse I need not meddle withall for if these principles which I have laid and the application thereof which I have made bee without exception then other by-matters cannot reach to the conscience in this businesse yet Concerning some secondary doubts ex abundanti that I may pay you some interest for the long delay of discharging this debt and that nothing may be wanting which may tend to clear your thoughts in this disquirie I shall take the other doubts of your discourse as you have offered them into consideration First you say that my assertion concerning the power of Subordinate officers is Questionable My assertion was that Subordinate officers belonging to a State are bound to Judge of the rights of these that are over them both by which 1 1. Concerning the right which subordinate officers have to Judg of the actings of superiours they stand in their places of supremary and by which they proceede in their actings towards Subjects lest they bee made the instruments of arbitrary power and Tyrannie This assertion you say is Questionable But to cleer the doubt which you may have of it take notice that I speake of officers belonging to a State as immediately subordinate thereunto and not depending upon a King though the Supreme Officer therein I suppose then that they are appointed by the Authority of the State it self and placed in their Offices thereby not by the authority of the K. This being presupposed that these officers are thus created staÌ„d in their places I conceive that which I have said of them to bee a truth very matteriall to be cleared to shew not onely how a people may lawfully I meane by the law of Nature free themselves from the danger of Tyranny but how private men who are in no publique place of Trust may be induced to discern what is most conducible for publique Safety by the Authority of their Leaders To have then this matter determined we may reflect upon two things First what To determine that which is doubtfull concerning this matter is considered Constitutions and Customes the Nations pretending to Freedome have made or keep up concerning the subordination of Officers under their highest Powers Secondly what the Ground and main Principle of subordination of Officers is in Nature and what the end of their imployment under Supreme Powers is What sorts of officers are in use among free nations We find by the Constitutions or Customes of free Nations three sorts of subordinate Officers in their States Some are placed by the Representatives of a Nation in their Offices Some by him that is in the place of Supremacy over it some by both joyntly The first although in respect of Power they are lesse and in Order they are after him who is Supreme because his place is first and his Power is of a larger extent then theirs yet because they receive not their places from him but from the same 1 1. Such as are set up by the State it self Authority whence he hath his Therefore they are not accountable to him of their proceedings but unto those onely who gave them their authority Thus in Poland Sweden and Denmarke by the ancient constitution of those States there are severall offices of state as chancellors and chief Iustices and Admirals who are appointed by Parliament and so hold their places from it and not from their Kings Thus you had in England a Constable of the Kingdome whom the Parliament did appoint But King James never rested till he was removed Thus in the Empire the electors are under the Emperour not as his officers but as Officers of the Empire it selfe they are instrusted to be Judges of the right and title of him who is to bee Supreme and they have a power in their colledge to controul him in his proceedings if he become exorbitant for they may say to him what dost thou this then is an allay of his emperiall power and so are all officers of this nature any where else an allay to the absolutenesse of the Royall power The second sort of subordinate officers are such as depend meerly upon him that is supreme in a Nation for he hath power in the charge wherewith he 2 2. Such as are set up by the Supreme Officer of State is intrusted to make and unmake his owne instruments so that they are to bee counted properly his officers subordinate to the charge whereof he is the chiefe administrator these are therefore responsable unto him first and then also to the State even as he himselfe is by whom they are employed These officers although they have no paaticular trust reposedin theÌ„ by the natioÌ„ yet because they are made instrumentall in the administration of a trust which the nation hath reposed in him who doth create them set them at work therefore they are responsable for the effects of their administration

Nations by reason of the hostilitie which hath been used between them the Supreme power of this Nation hath for it self as distinct from Scotland determined in reference to the emergencies sprung up since the making of the Covenant that the true notion of Common welfare and safety as to us doth now stand in the maintaining of the Common-wealth by it self immediately without a King and House of Lords For the having of a King and House of Lords were never by the rules of Christianity and naturall equitie understood otherwise to be usefull but in order to the Common-wealth If therefore at any time they wereby any taken up for themselves without a due subordination to the Common-wealth It is a cleare mistake of the true meaning of their constitution and by the principles of Naturall equitie it is in the power of the Trustees for the Common-wealth to rectifie it not is there any rule in Christianity which is not consonant unto this that Salvus populi is Suprema Lex therefore they who are intrusted with Authority and power to see this Law kept it according to the best of their understandings upon different emergencies they alter the meanes of procuring it and determine the way of prosecuting it I cannot see what should move the consciences of particular men to be offended at 4 4. And what obligation lyes them for so doing or what warrant they can have in Christianity or naturall equity to crosse them in upon private men to follow their rulers in the way of rectifying this mistake their proceedings If they prescribe nothing to those that are in subjection which is in it self impious or unlawfull for if they doe prescribe any such thing the Law of God is cleere but if nothing of this kind be enjoyned but onely that which is in its own nature alterable according to circumstances of which circumstances they by their places are made Judges and not I then I suppose it is undeniably cleere that my conscience ought not to be bound up so to any one particular circumstance of proceeding towards the publique safety as that I may not have the liberty upon the change of circumstances to follow them whom in alterable matters God hath made my Leaders for the publique good For if it belongs to their proper charge to judge when and where and what change is to be made in the State and how the publique good by Publique Resolutions is to be advanced therein and if I am bound to trust them with this and am not permitted by the law of God in Christianity or common equity to take upon me to be their judge or to rule them or to overrule the judgements of other men under them against their sense therein then my conscience is at libertie and under no guilt Although I follow their dictates in affaires which are changeable I must onely look to this that in my private station my course upon all emergencies whatsoever be made answerable to the rules of Christianity and equitie in the circumstances of mine own way whereof I am to bee a judge for my self and if in these circumstances I subordinate by these rules my proceedings to common safety I discharge the dutie of a true and faithfull Subject and need not to trouble my spirit further with higher matters for if I doe trouble my self with them I bring my self into a snare because I observe not the bounds wherein I am at libertie but goe beyond them If these grounds cannot be contradicted Rationally then I suppose you will see thereby that you The conclusion of the maine scruple need not to be concluded so as you think you are obliged to be unalterably under the precise termes of the former Ingagements in opposition to this because the true and Legall intent thereof is fully made out so farre as concernes the shew of your judicature in this last Ingagement Therefore when you say in your discourse to me that the Oath of Allegiance and the Nationall Covenant are such Sacred and everlasting Obligements The consequence inferred upon the maine scruple is proposed upon the consciences of these that are under them that they can never lawfully by enterring into any after-Ingagements bind up themselves from acting in good and lawfull wayes if the Lord be pleased to open any such in after times for the assisting of the jurisdictions formerly annexed to the Imperiall Crown of this Realme and for the preserving of the Rights of Parliament then acknowledged when the Covenant was taken as farre forth as the Imperiall jurisdictions and And then opened and resolved to shew Parliamentary Rights are Consistent with the true Religion and liberties of the Kingdome I say when you assert this you mean either to make every particular man a Judge of the restrictive clause how farre the Imperiall Jurisdictions and Parliamentary Rights are consistent with the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdome or not If you will make every particular man a competent judge of Imperiall jurisdictions of Parliamentary Rights and of the consistency thereof in reference to all publique emergencies with the true Religion and the Liberties of the Kingdome you will be obliged to shew me some grounds for this your opinion and to make it appeare that I have erred in my fifth proposition which I suppose is not to be contradicted But if you will not make every private or particular man a publique Judge of those things yet will allow them to be determined upon all emergeÌ„t publique occasioÌ„s by some body in a publique way then it will I suppose fall to the share of the Supreme powers for the time being to make this determination if it be their right upon all emergencies to Judge what consistencie there is between the true Religion the liberties of the Kingdome which to me are essentiall requisities of the common welfare and safetie of a christian common wealth with the imperiall Iurisdictions and the Parliamentary Rights then I suppose inferiours ought either to be concluded by their determination or not If not how can it be supposed to be their right what ground is there left upon such occasions to avoid confusion and to keepe a settlement of order and governments But if they ought to be concluded by their superiours in these things and if their superiours Judge it fit or necessary for common safety to alter the termes of these former publique engagements how can their obligements as to these things bee called everlasting and never alterable for if these that have a right to alter the same find cause so That all humane Constitutions being alterable no everlasting and unalterable obligement can be brought upon mens consciences thereby to do and do as they find cause and if none are to be Judges of the causes of that alteration but they themselves and if the rest are to bee concluded by them how can the obligement of the conscience bee made everlasting to a matter in

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