Selected quad for the lemma: work_n
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A30985
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Several miscellaneous and weighty cases of conscience learnedly and judiciously resolved / by the Right Reverend Father in God, Dr. Thomas Barlow ...
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Barlow, Thomas, 1607-1691.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing B843; ESTC R21506
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129,842
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472
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Positive Law that all the seed of Abraham should be Circumcised the eighth day on pain of being cut off from his People And yet the Obligation of that Divine Positive Law ceased for forty years while they wander'd in the Wilderness and yet Moses their Supreme Power did neither Punish according to the Letter of the Law nor blame them for it 2. It was a Divine Positive Law that they should keep the Passover on the Fourteenth day of the first Moneth and yet there were several Cases wherein the Obligation of that Law ceased so that they did not sin though they did not that day eat the Passover For if any one was casually unclean by touching a dead body or if he were on a journey c. the Obligation of that Law ceased as to him and he sin'd not though he did not eat the Passover on the day appointed by the Law 3. The Sanctification of the Sabbath as to that particular day was injoyn'd by a Divine Positive Law and by that Law it was capital to violate the Sabbath or do any of our own Work the Worship of God Almighty being the proper and only work of that day And yet it is certain and on all sides confess'd that in many Cases the Obligation of that Law ceaseth so that we may lawfully do that which otherwise to the Jews was Capital If an Enemy invade our Country or a City be set on fire on the Sabbath or our Lord's day we may lawfully take Arms to defend our Country and the Church and Divine Service left make haste and labour hard to quench the fire and save the City Now as to the aforementioned Divine Positive Laws there may be many Cases wherein their Obligation ceases so that the Punishment otherwise required by those Laws may lawfully be pardoned So in this Law given to Noah there have been and may be several Cases wherein that Law does not bind ad Poenam and so the Murderer may lawfully be pardon'd 3. And it is further to be consider'd that this Law de Homicidio given to Noah does neither expressly say nor by any good consequence intimate that the Supreme Power shall not in any Case pardon a condemn'd Murderer It only declares death to be the just reward and punishment of Murder but it does not say that it must necessarily be always executed so that no Pardon in no case is to be admitted 4. And it is certain and in our present case more considerable That Jacobs two Sons Simeon and Levi were guilty of Murder and yet were pardon'd notwithstanding the Law given to Noah Sure it is that they were neither sentenc'd nor put to death for their Murders but long after went down into Egypt with Jacob their Father and died there Though they had impiously and abundantly shed Man's blood yet their blood was not shed for it Tho Jacob their Father and Isaac who was then living were the Supreme Powers in the then Church of God consisting in the seed of Abraham and had power to do it Nor could those Patriarchs Isaac and Jacob be ignorant of the Law given to Noah seeing Noah himself lived till the fifty seventh year of Abraham and died only forty three years before Isaac's birth Now considering the persons of these two great Patriarchs that they were Prophets men of exceeding Piety and beloved of God we may be sure they would not have transgressed that Law given by God to Noah if they had believed that the Obligation of it was such as excluded all possibility of Pardon In short if those pious Patriarchs might pardon Murder then I desire to know why Supreme Princes in some cases may not pardon it now 5. Lastly I ask Did that Law given to Noah bind David and the Jews in his time or did it not If not how comes it to bind us now above 2700 years after David's death If it did bind David then so as no pardon was to be permitted or granted to a Murderer it is not probable that David a Prophet and the best of Kings would have transgress'd that Divine Law and pardon'd Absolom Especially if we consider that his other known sins as Murder Adultery Numbring the People c. are confess'd by him and in Scripture mentioned as his sins but his pardoning Absolom is no where in Scripture confess'd by him or laid to his charge as a transgression of any Law Sed manum de Tabula I desire you to ask those who made the former Objection against the King's power of pardoning Murder from the Law given to Noah and think the Laws given to Noah still Obligatory How it comes to pass that in the same place the first Law given to Noah is a Prohibition to eat any Blood which is confirm'd by Moses and no where abrogated And yet all Papists and Protestants eat Blood notwithstanding that Law of God to Noah forbidding it I desire to know of the Gentleman who made the Objection which I hope I have probably answer'd why the second Law given to Noah Gen. 9. 6. about Murder should be binding and yet the first Law Gen. 9. 4. against eating Blood should not be binding too He who can and will solve me this doubt will do me a kindness which if any few can I am Your Faithful Friend and Servant T. L. THE CASE OF Pardoning Murder The CASE of Pardoning MURDER Query Whether it be lawful for his Sacred Majesty to Reprive or Pardon a Person convict and legally condemned for Murder My Honoured Friend ALthough I well know your Loyalty to be as much and your Learning and Knowledg of the Laws and their Obligation to be more than mine yet according to your command and my promise I have here sent you a Compendium and short Account of some Discourses I lately had with some who seem'd to doubt Whether our Gracious Soveraign could reprive or pardon a person legally condemned for Murder For a distinct answer to this Query I consider 1. That it is certain that all we Subjects are by the indispensable law of God and Nature bound next to our good God the great King of Heaven and Earth to honour and obey our Gracious Soveraign and that not only for fear of punishment but for Conscience lake So that to do or speak or think dishonourably of the Lord Anointed our King and to question and deny any of the Rights of his Crown and Prerogatives is in all Subjects disloyal and impious In the Natural Body if there be any blemish or disease in the head if it be in any danger from without all the members of the body the dictates of Right Reason and the principles of Nature requiring it will industriously concur to cover and conceal that blemish to cure that disease and prevent all danger that may happen to the Head So in the Body Politick if the King the Head of that Body have any errors or
which the Lord thy God GIVETH THEE Canaan is the Land promised and given to the Jews only not to the Gentiles nor ever intended for them it being indeed impossible that all Jews and Gentiles should live in that little Land But to pass by the promises which do not so properly belong to our present business I say 2. That it is as certain that all the Mosaical Laws de Poenis are not natural but Positive and Judicial Laws which never bound any save the Jews or those who became Proselytes and voluntarily submitted to them to whom only they were given That this may further and more distinctly appear it is to be confidered as certain and consessed I. That the Law of Nature as all just Laws do binds all men 1. Ad Obedientiam to a willing and perfect Obedience And 2. upon supposition of sin ad Poenam But the Punishment to which the Law of Nature binds is Death and that Eternal Death For as in Adam by reason of sin all die so they had died eternally had not God most graciously sent his Son to redeem them from that death Every sin how small soever by the Covenant of Works of which the Moral Law was the condition on mans part to be perform'd was a capital crime and Death the Wages or punishment by that law due to it But those many various laws de Poenis which occur in the Mosaical law which he gave to the Jews are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non leges nobiscum nataE in cord naturalitere inscriptae not Natural laws writ in our hearts and born with us But they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leges à Deo datae positive Laws which neither do nor ever did bind any but the Jews As may appear 2. Because they were given only to the Jews and that after they came out of Egypt which was after the Fall of Adam above 2450 years But those Mosaical Laws de Poenis of which we speak were never given nor publish'd to the Gentiles But had those Laws de Poenis been Natural Laws as the Precepts in the Decalogue are they would have bound all mankind from the Creation to this day and that indispensably and then all Christians should be bound to obey and practise those Penal laws and punish all Malefactors with such punishments only as in those laws are appointed which is evidently untrue as may appear 3. By the judgment and consent of the Christian World for no Christian Church or State did ever think themselves bound to observe those Mosaical Poenal Laws and to punish transgressors of the Divine Law with those punishments which are prescribed by Moses For instance That the stealing of a Sheep should be punish'd with restitutio in quadruplum with restoring four sheep for one if the thief had sold or kill'd the sheep he stole but if the sheep was found in his hand who stole it he was only to restore two sheep for one That the stealer of an Ox should restore five Oxen. That he who curseth or who smiteth his father or mother or will not obey them should be punished with death and stoned with stones That to do any of our own work so much only as to gather a few sticks on the Sabbath day should be capital and the offender in any one of these things surely put to death although these and such other Laws de Poenis were Divine given to the Jews by Moses and obliged them yet no Christian Church or State did ever think themselves obliged to the observation and practice of them And they had good ground in the Gospels to think so For 4. Our Blessed Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount explains and confirms all the Moral Laws de Officiis yet those severe Mosaical Laws de Poenis he did not confirm But expresly declares that legal severity to be inconsistent with the Charity of the Gospel For though by the Mosaical law a Jew might justly require and the Judge give an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth yet our Blessed Saviour expresly declares against such legal severity You have heard saith he it has been said in the Law of Moses an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth But I say unto you Resist not evil c He does not allow that severity in poenis in the Gospel which Moses allow'd the Jews under the Law and therefore we may be sure that it was not any Moral or Natural Law which required those punishments appointed for several sins in the Law of Moses for then they had been unalterable nor would our Blessed Saviour have contradicted them but it was the positive law of Moses which required them of the Jews to whom only these Laws were given and obligatory And here for further evidence of this truth it is to be considered 1. That in that Mosaical Law which is ignorantly or maliciously urged to prove that our Gracious Soveraign cannot pardon murder the strictest binding words are these The Murderer SHALL SURELY BE PUT TO DEATH Therefore say they he cannot be pardon'd They who reason thus did not well consider the consequence of such arguing from the Penal Laws in Moses For if this argument be good Moses says The Murderer shall surely be put to death Ergo He cannot be pardon'd Then this grounded on the same law of Moses will be every way as good and concluding The same Moses says Whosoever doth ANY work on the sabbath-Sabbath-day he shall SURELY be put to death Ergo He cannot be pardon'd If such Logick were good it would conclude all men to be unpardonably guilty of death seeing I believe there is no man who on some Lords-day has not done some work and therefore by such Logick as this must be unpardonably guilty of death But enough of this for indeed such arguments do not deserve any serious answer or confufutation Sure I am that never any Christian Church or State did or had any reason to believe That the severe Jewish Law for the observation of the Sabbath did oblige Christians and therefore there neither is nor can be any more reason why their severe Law against Murder should be now obligatory to Gentiles or Christians to whom it was never given 2. When the Law says The Murderer shall SURELY die our best Commentators out of the Rabbins say that this is spoken to the Judges before whom such Causes regularly came Now those Judges in the Jewish Commonwealth were appointed by the Supreme Power and by his Authority judged and determined Causes under him Admit then that the Judges who were Magistrates Subordinate to the Supreme Power were to take no satisfaction for the life of a Murderer but were by that Law oblig'd to condemn and execute him yet it does not hence follow that the Supreme Power who made them Judges might