Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	ordinance_n	power_n	resist_v	4,907	5	10.4011	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45144	The nonconformists relief prepared against the sessions of the next justices in London or in the country by a follower of peace, and lover of sincerity.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.	1678 (1678)	Wing H3695; ESTC R14156	3,713	8

THE NONCONFORMISTS RELIEF Prepared against the SESSIONS Of the Next JUSTICES In London or in the Country By a Follower of Peace and Lover of Sincerity Rom. 13.1 2. Let every soul be subject unto the higher Powers For there is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in St. Paul's Church-yard 1678 THE NONCONFORMISTS RELIEF WHereas there is an Oath required of every Nonconformist Preacher that lives in a Corporate Town which hath been an occasion of scruple or of trouble to many when really the contents thereof at the bottom are nothing else but the giving security to the State of our fidelity I who am one of the meanest among my Brethren after some long consideration of what is like to edify or offend the most do upon the account of what is just and right and not only what is prudent having first satisfied my doubts humbly present my self though none of the first to obey what is commanded For the due performance whereof with a good conscience I will lay down my rule upon which I go and I must then act according to it The rule I have to lay down for our submission to this and the like Impositions is that forasmuch as the Law is the Will of the Law-giver or Declaration of his Will we are to consider impartially what the intent or purpose of the major part of the Parliament which consists of the King and his two Houses is or was that we should yield to in our compliance with them in such or such an Imposition and if we can submit to it in that sense which we verily believe to be their mind or meaning we are to do it and if we cannot we are to suffer If we take their words in any sense of our own though never so rational which we believe in our consciences is or was not their meaning we prevaricate with the Law and are profane or loose in our obedience and if we make any scruples which our conscience tells us are besides their purpose or not to be made in equity according to their mind or meaning we are injurious to the Law-giver and ought to lay down such hard constructions Here is the true latitude or Middle way we are to walk in in our resolution of such cases This rule therefore being laid I must do two things for the practice of it I must first give the sense of the Oath according to what I sincerely believe to be the intent of the Imposers without wrong unto them or my own understanding and I must then apply my self to the taking of it Only I must carefully premise this for avoiding all offence to the Higher Powers that I do not take upon me as no one can to put a meaning on the Oath which I know I must take in theirs or to determine and say This is their meaning but to say I believe this to be their meaning which is necessary to determine for my own self that I may act in Faith in what I do For the true sense then or interpretation of this Oath here are three parts or clauses of it The first part is I swear that it is not lawful to take arms against the King upon any pretence whatsoever In which clause we are to conceive in the first place as I am satisfied for my self some such words as I hold or I believe are to be understood which may appear from some other Act where they are supplied in the like Imposition I swear that I hold it unlawful to take arms against the King and in the next place by the words Vpon any pretence whatsoever as we are to understand no less doubtlesly than upon any cause or in any case Vlla ex causa so we are not to screw up those words so high as if no case or cases could be invented to put exception against the universality of the proposition but that there is no such case or cases obvious so as to come into the mind of the Law-maker and no such consequently as by the intent of the Law we should object to our selves in the taking this Oath or no such to be put with regard to our King so that if this position be received by us as it is stated and held by the most learned Assertors of the power of Princes and maintainers of this Tenet it self we are to conceive it their minds we should yield to it as indefinitely true without nicety and too scrupulous a disquisition I will explain my self a little further This position may relate either to the Kingly Power in general or to the Person of the King As it relates to the former it suffices to the meaning that we hold it as others against rebellion have maintained it That is I suppose the Majority of Voters if their minds could be asked would desire no more of us As it relates to the latter I believe the meaning to be no less than this that there is no case to be put or no cause in the earth to be found out that will warrant our taking arms against our present Soveraign Charles the Second And this I heartily believe and am ready to swear to it The second part is And I do abhor that traiterous position of taking arms by the authority of the King against his Person or any commissionated by him In this clause I understand by the word abhor in the cool sense I disclaim and I count the Position traiterous if it be used to rebellion But it is not I suppose once to be conceived that it was the intent of the Parliament the most of the Members or of his Majesty himself to advance any arbitrary Commissions above Law in any point by these words and consequently that by those commissionated by him we must understand such only as are Legally Commissionated and in the Legal pursuit of such Commissions A Commission not Legal is no Commission and no man can be justified if he act otherwise than his Commission And by this interpretation only which I am fully perswaded upon the account mentioned was the sense of the Law-giver are the most material objections taken off that have been alledged against this Oath by any And fit advice also hath been taken in the whole case The third part is And that I will not at any time endeavour any alteration of Government either in Church or State In this clause By Government we must understand out of doubt the present Government and that only which in the State is Monarchy in the Church Episcopacy And we are not to imagine that it was the intent of this Act to deprive any English man of his free-born right to choose Parliament Men whom he thinks meetest to inform them of our grievances to petition them and to concur with them as our Representatives which vertually we must needs do in every Act that passes for the repealing old Laws and making now and consequently if it should seem good to the Parliament to make any reformation of Religion so long as it were carried on in an orderly way by the consent of the King and the two Houses there is nothing in such an Endeavour of any man in his place and calling but what is warranted by the fundamental Constitution of the Realm so that by this Endeavour here abjured we must understand such an Endeavour only as is not warrantable by the Constitution Such an Endeavour we may suppose the Parliament intended as was used in the late times when they went about to remove Episcopacy without the consent of the King and against it Such an Endeavour we abjure That is we will not endeavour by any means at all to remove the King from his Throne because the Constitution of the Land is to be governed by a Monarch and we will not endeavour to alter Episcopacy or reform the Church in any way or manner but what is warrantable by the Law of the Nation that is by a Convocation or Act of Parliament This is what I believe to be the true meaning of the Imposer and in this meaning I thank God that with a conscience fully perswaded and an honest intention to the Publick as to my self I do address my self to the words ensuing J. A. B. do swear that it is not lawful to take arms against the King upon any pretence whatsoever and that I do abhor that traiterous Position of taking arms by the authority of the King against his Person or against those that are commissionated by him in the Pursuance of such Commissions And that I will not at any time endeavour any alteration of Government either in Church or State JOHN HUMFREY Reader I Bless God I have a good conscience in Printing this Paper I am sensible into how many streights many Ministers and many good Men in several Corporations have been and may be still brought in regard to this Oath or some like it If there be difference every man who is concerned is to look to his own conscience I have laid him down his Rule and he is to be true to it and to his own Soul and if he be in doubt in any point he must forbear For my own part I am so well satisfied about this Oath that although I see not the Ends of Divine Providence in the general affairs of my life who am one still on the wrong side of the hedge yet do I not think my self born into the world to no purpose so long as I have lived to do this A matter so small I count in it self and yet so momentous in regard to the Publick in the security of the Government and the quiet of honest people I do not subscribe my Name as one now actually swearing to the Oath but as the Author of the Paper But I intend to take this Oath for ought I know to choose whether I need it or no and much more if I do need it after I have published thus much unless I see more reason than now to the contrary The sum of the matter is I am content for my own part to engage my self to have no hand in any rebellion whatsoever happens I am resolved upon it I will be no Rebel by the Grace of God J. H. FINIS