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authority_n church_n pope_n power_n 9,049 5 5.1690 4 true
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A54023 An answer to that common objection against the Quakers, that they condemn all but themselves with a loving and faithful advertisement to the nation and powers thereof. Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679. 1660 (1660) Wing P1151; ESTC R18266 7,180 12

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Successors followed keeping the very Title which the Pope gave to him of Defender of the Faith And so Parliaments in their dayes as if the Government of the Church were a right and priviledge of the Nation and not peculiar to Christ have taken upon them to make laws and orders about the Government of the Church and people of God in spiritual things as well as about matters of State Now it would fairly and honestly with the spirit of meekness and in the fear of the Lord be enquired into whether the Popes Power and Authority in this Nation was a true church-Church-Power and Authority that is whether it was such a church-Church-Power and Authority as Christ had instituted or of another nature even of a nature contrary to Christ and to his inward Government in the spirits of his people For if the Popes power and Authority was a true Church power and Authority then it may be lawful in another hand though not in the Popes but if it was an usurped kind of Authority and Government in it self then it cannot be lawful in it self nor serviceable to Christ in any other hand but will prove an instrument of War against him in whose hands soever it be put And let it be singly considered whether the church-Church-power in this Nation hath not been a curb to the rising of the purity of Religion even a sharp check upon the tender conscience but such as the loose yea prophane spirit would take pleasure in and contend for The true Church-power is onely the power of the spirit of Christ That converts men to God and that alone is able to govern them in the affairs of his kingdom being converted Man medling with Religion and Church-Government in his wisdom is but a beast and must govern like a beast namely with force and cruelty over the spirit and conscience which is tender towards God As the Lord God of heaven and earth never gave the converting power to any so neither did he ever give this governing power to any further than as they were endued with his spirit for that is the Scepter of his Church and Kingdom which is a Scepter of Righteousness which leads on in the love and gentleness of the Spirit that which is to be dealt gently with and spiritually cuts off by its severity and sharpness that which is to be cut off And here are Christs limits of Government which that spirit and wisdom which exceeds errs and does hurt both to it self and others Now if in the mist of darkness wch hath long over-spread the earth for though there brake out a little Light to discover the thick blackness of Popery and to cause some Reformation out of it yet the mist was not expelled this Nation hath erred her Princes her teachers her Parliaments and all sorts of persons in laying hold on and establishing a wrong Church-power which power hath had a bad effect namely in suppressing the progress of the reforming spirit and raising up a formal spirit if not a spirit of looseness and prophaness which ran backwards towards Popery and not forwards from it yet let them not love error and so strive against the light which shineth forth to discover the error to them But let them humble themselves before Christ the Lord of all and restore unto him that which is his due least they provoke him to wrath and cause him to take from them what they look upon as their due For is it not just with Christ to take that power from men which they so long as they have it will not forbear mannaging and making use of to keep him from his power Consider these things O England for they belong to thy peace and toward the mitigation of thy sorrow and misery in the day of thy calamity This is from one who hath mourned over thee while thou hast been rejoycing Isaac Penington the younger O that thou couldst know at least in this last hour of thy day how to make thy peace with the Lord and not begin that controversie a fresh with him which he hath already so much shattered and broken thee about that the dregs of the cup whereof thou hast already so largly drunk might pass from thee An Explanatory POST-SCRIPT WE read of the getting up of another Power than Christs in the Church after the dayes of the Apostles 1 Thes. 2. 4. Rev. 13. 2. which Power was to last 42. Months even all the time of Anti-Christs Reign by which Power the Beast should make war with and overcome the Saints in all Kindreds Tongues and Nations vers. 5 6 7. And all this wickedness and persecution of the Saints should be committed under a pretence of Righteousness as if it were for Christ and the well-government of his Church from a true and rightly-derived and well-ballanced Power 1 Thes. 2. 8. 9. Now this Power will last in one Form or other even till the very coming of Christ and then shall that wicked Spirit in all his workings in all his various appearings and transformings as if he still were for God and for the right and orderly Government of his Church and Temple be discovered by degrees consumed and at last destroyed vers. 8. And then the Kings or Powers of the earth which give their power and strength to the Beast helping him to cause men to worship Rev. 13. 15 16. making war with the Lamb and his suffering Saints by their Laws whips prisons fines c. shall be overcome by him who fighteth against them with the spirit of his mouth and by his truth meekness and righteousness which shines in the hearts and conversations of his called faithful and chosen Rev. 17. 13 14. Psal. 45. 4 5. The power of Christ cannot hurt any of his Lambs it never forced the weak ones the tender conscienced but he carries the Lambs in his bosome and gently leads those that are with young Isa. 40. 11. He had rather have many Hypocrites spared than one Ear of Wheat plucked up Mat. 13. 29. That Power therefore in the Church which spares the Hypocrites who can easily comply with an outward conformity in Worship without feeling an inward life or vertue but lights heavy on that which is tender and shie in matters of Worship knowing that it must give an account thereof to Christ that is not the true Church-Power but at best but a counterfeit of the true THE END LONDON Printed for Robert Wilson and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Black-spread Eagle and Wind-Mill in Martins Le Grand 1660.