Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	king_n	pope_n	power_n	9,357	5	5.4045	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60294	Sions groans for her distressed, or Sober endeavours to prevent innocent blood, and to stablish the nation in the best of settlements Grounded upon scripture, reason, and authority. Proving it the undoubted right of Christian liberty under different perswasions, in matters spiritual, to have equal protection as to their civil peace. Unto which is added the testimony of fifteen antients. Humbly offered to the Kings Majesty, Parliament and people, and left unto their serious view. By Tho. Monck, Joseph Wright, Fran. Stanley, &c.; Sions groans for her distressed.	Monck, Thomas. aut; Wright, Joseph, 1623-1703. aut; Stanley, Fr. (Francis), d. 1696. aut; Hanson, Geo. aut; Reynolds, William, 1625-1698. aut; Jeffery, William, 1616-1693. aut	1661 (1661)	Wing S3870; ESTC R220545	19,156	24

Magistrate power to remove those out of the World that God would have permitted to live How soon may a Magistrate if guided by such Doctrine bring the blood of the Innocent upon himselfe and Nation and innocent blood the Lord will not pardon 2 King 24.4 It therefore highly concernes all Magistrates before they persecute any for matters of Faith or Worship to see they have a better warrant for so doing than the word of men which will not secure them at that day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to the Gospel which will bee found to be the Book that shall be opened when the dead both small and great shall stand before God to be judged by what is written therein according to their works as the Lord Jesus saith The Word that I have spoken the same shall judge you at the last day and this is his word to Let both Tares and Wheat grow together in the Field of the World until the Harvest 4 It can in no wise be safe for Magistrates in the dayes of the Gospel to persecute and destroy those that are contrary minded in Religious matters because of their fallibility and that is the very reason why the Lord Jesus in the fore-mentioned Parable forbids gathering up the Tares lest the Wheat be rooted up along with them That Magistrates may erre in Spiritual and Religious matters woful experience hath taught the world in all ages the Lord of Life himself was put to death for supposed blasphemy and wickedness and accused for being an enemy unto Cesar which great mistake was committed through ignorance as Peter saith And now Brethren I not that through ignorance ye did it as also did your Rulers And at this day what mistakes are continued in Magistrates about Religion some being Calvinists as in Holland and Geneva more Lutherans but the greatest part Papists and each of these condemneth and many times persecuteth the other for Heresie or Superstition unavoydably therefore it follows that some of these must erre but we need not go far for the proof of this in one and the same person who receives that at one time for truth which at another time must be persecuted for error this appeared notably in King Henry the Eighth who persecuted the Protestants to death and writes against Luther for which the Pope gives him the Title of Defender of the Faith and yet a while after receives some of Luthers Doctrine and rejects the Supremacy and Authority of the Pope and serves the Papists as he did the Protestants nor will Magistrates be the more free from mistakes by relying on the Authority of Synods Popes or General Councils because such eminent contradictions and oppositions have appeared amongst each of them that nothing is more uncertain than their conclusions As for General Councils whose Authority is in the greatest estimation of the three it is plain they are so far from being infallible that their Decrees have been not only directly opposite to plain Texts of Scripture and the practice of the Primitive Church but also against each other which appeared first in the Council of Constantine the Thirteenth Session where it was Decreed that the Lords Supper should be given but in one kinde when nothing is more plaine than that the Lord Jesus instituted it the Apostle Paul afterwards delivered it to the Corinths and the Primitive Church received it with both the Bread and the Cup. So for the Council of Trent to Decree that the Service in the Church should be performed in Latine how contrary is it to the Doctrine of Paul who said in the Church He had rather speak five words with understanding that he might teach others than ten thousand words in an unknown Tongue So also have they clashed one with another the Council of Trent allowing Picturing of God the Father the Councel of Nice altogether disallowing of it and in the great Arrian Controversie which was no circumstantial business how many Councils and Conventions were both for and against it As little reliance can be put on any supposed infalibility the 〈◊〉 may have there having been two or three at one time each rageing against the other with their censures and decrees and notorious it is what descention there was amongst the Popes and Cardinals about Pope Formosus who being first Bishop of Pontiniake was degraded by Pope Iohn the 8 th and made to take an oath to lead a secular life al his daies yet by Pope Martin that succeeded Iohn was Formosus released from his Oath restored to his Bishoprick and afterwards came to be Pope so continued 5. years making several Decrees but Stephen the 6 th coming to the Popedome abrogates the decrees of Formosus takes up his body cuts off two of his fingers throws them into the river Tiber then buries him in a laymans Sepulchre Next to Stephen succeeded Romanus who on the other hand repeals the Acts and Decrees of his Predecessor Stephen against Formosus Pope Iohn the 10 th in a Synode at Ravena ratifies all the decrees and doings of Formosus yet after all this comes Pope Sergins digs up again Formosus cuts off his Head and 3 more of his fingers and throws his body into Tiber likewise deposed all such as had been consecrated by him Al which Schismes and discensions makes it plain to the World that there is nothing of infallibility in the Popes And for National Conventions and Synods they are so far from any shew of infallibility that the same complexion and temper the Nation is of wherein they are called and have their promotions you shall be sure to find them of because they have their dependency on the Authority that calls them together So that although the last National Synod in this Nation would have established Presbytery because that then was most like to take yet it is very questionable if now a Convention be called whether it will be much talked of amongst them Then this must be concluded from all that seeing Magistrates themselves General Councils Popes or National Synods may erre in judging and determining the most weighty Controversies in Religion there can therefore be no security for a Magistrate that he doth well in persecuting or putting to Death the contrary minded in religious matters seeing thorow mistake he may as soon persecute or put to death the true followers of the Lord Jesus or any other yea in likelihood much sooner because they in conscience towards God cannot receive the inventions and traditions of men in the Worship of God but must be a witness for the eternal God against them for which they are accounted as the Saints of old pestilent fellows movers of sedition turners of the World upside down enemies to Cesar and upon this account persecuted when the greatest part of men being unregenerate and have no other Spirit in them but what is of this World there is

also 〈◊〉 conscience sake and if any thing otherwise shall be required we shall be passive and suffer what may be inflicted on us for our consciences for what ever hath been suggested by evil men yet that Magistracy and Government is an Ordinance of God hath been frequently asserted in our discourses and writings and is by us beleeved as fully as the Apostle Paul in the 13 of the Romans hath taught And all that we desire which is dearer to us than our lives is that our spirits and consciences may bee left free to serve the Eternal God which ought to be granted us seeing as the same Apostle saith in these cases We shall every one of us give an account of himself to God But to our Arguments the first of which shall be that which some of us made use of to the Kings Majesty from Maidstone which we have not yet seen weakned Let it therefore be considered if any Magistrate under Heaven in the dayes of the Gospel hath power by outward force to impose any thing in the worship and service of God on the conscience it is given him as he is a Magistrate only or as a Christian so considered but that no such power is given by God to any Magistrate appears 1 Because if Magistrates as such have such an Authority then all Magistrates in all Nations have the same power then if we lived in Turky must we receive the Alchoran and be worshippers of Mahomet if in Spain be Papists in England sometimes Papists as in Henry the eighths ●ayes Protestants in Edward the sixths Papists again in Queen Maries and Protestants again in Queen Elizabeths and so for ever as the Authority changes Religion wee must do the same but God forbid for nothing is more absurd 2 Seeing in the dayes of the Gospel the Lord Jesus is that great Prophet which as Moses said is to be heard in all things and as himself testifieth Hath all power in heaven and earth given unto him Then if Magistrates have power to impose any thing by outward force on the conscience it must be committed unto them from the Lord Jesus and written in the Scriptures of the New Testament or else how doth it appear but the whole stream of the New Testament Scriptures run clear in another channel and there is no colour for any such supposition as farther appears 3 Because the Apostles themselves that gave forth those Commands which are written in Scripture to be obedient to Magistrates refused to be obedient to their Rulers when they were commanded to forbear that which they judged part of the worship of God and said Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judge yee 4 All the Scriptures of the New Testament that enjoyn obedience unto Magistrates were written when the Romans had the Empire of the world whose Emperours were for the most part if not all heathenish Idolators for the first three hundred years until Constantines time it therefore cannot be supposed that any of those Texts of Scripture that call for obedience to Magistrates intend an obedience in matters of faith for then the Christians that lived under those Emperours must needs have denied Christ and worshipped the Roman gods as some of the Emperours commanded 5 If Magistrates as such have power from God in the dayes of the Gospel to command in spiritual matters and to punish those that obey not then must Christians surely be actually obedient not only for wrath but also for conscience sake because else they should resist the Ordinance of God but if this were true the way to heaven would be so far from being strait and narrow that any might be a Disciple of Christ without taking up the cross and following him yea all sufferings and persecutions should wholly be at an end and they that undergo them should utterly be condemned for it is not to be supposed there could be persecutions if all the commands of the Magistrate in spiritual causes were actually to be obeyed It therefore reasonably follows that no Magistrate as such hath power from God to compel in spiritual causes but on the contrary for Saints to endure persecutions and sufferings rather than actually obey is abundantly by the Lord foretold rewarded and justified as by the Scriptures of the New Testament appears Bu● if it be objected that neither the Magistrate is to command nor the subjects actually to obey any thing but what is according to the minde of God It is answered that all Magistrates suppose what ever they impose to be so but the question is who is to determine for if the Magistrate or any other man or men have power from God to judge and determine what is lawful for men to obey then no room is left for them to dispute the lawfulness of any of his commands it being their duty to obey what ever is commanded and so as it hath been said before the Cross of Christ ceases but if every one shall give account for himself to God then it reasonably follows that every man judge for himself in matters spiritual and therefore for the Magistrate to compel cannot be warrantable by Scripture or Reason Again that the power to judge and determine in spiritual matters is not in a Magistrate as such Gallio the Roman Deputy of Achaia well understood when the Iews made insurrection with one accord against Paul and brought him to the Judgement seat saying This fellow perswadeth men to worship God contrary to the Law which almost ever since hath been the great cry by all sorts of the National Clergy whose turns it hath been to have the Magistrate on their sides against all others that have differed from them but Gallio said If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness O ye Iews reason would that I should bear with you but if it be a question of words and names and of your Law look yee to it for I will be no judge of such matters And he drave them from the Iudgement seat Which worthy example if Magistrates would be perswaded to follow by judging and punishing onely Civil injuries and wrongs and leaving Spiritual differences to bee decided and judged and punished by Jesus Christ according to the Gospel they then would finde themselves and Governments quickly free from many inconveniences that now they are involved in about deciding Religious Controversies with external force and power And now that no Magistrate although a Christian hath power to be a Lord over anothers faith or by outward force to impose any thing in the worship of God is also very clear 1 Because the Lord Jesus himself would never by any outward force compel men to receive him or his Doctrine for when his Disciples supposing they might use violence as under the Law would have commanded fire to come down from heaven as Elias did to consume them that would

not receive him Christ turned and rebuked them saying Ye know not what spirit ye are of for the Son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them and most remarkable doth it appear that it is not the intent of the Lord Jesus that judgement should be executed on those that reject his words to the punishing them in their bodies and estates in this life as under the Law from his own sayings written Iohn 12.47 48. which speak thus If any man hear my words and beleeve not I judge him not for I came not to judge the world but to save the world and he that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him the word that I have spoken the same shall judge him at the last day And the Apostles also were so far from propagating the Gospel by outward violence and force that all their proceedings were by intreaty and perswasion and in case of resistance to shake the dust from their feet as a witness against their opposers nor will it avail to say because the Magistrate exercises authority on civil and temporal things which the Lord Christ would not that therefore in spiritual things they may do the same unless it may be supposed the Magistrates right to have supremacy over the world to come in all heavenly and eternal things because God hath given him power over the world that now is in earthly and temporal things which may be conjectured upon as good ground from what is written as that a Magistrate under the Gospel-dispensation hath more power in spiritual causes than the Lord Christ or his Apostles would exercise especially seeing there is not the least warrant for any such power from Christ or the Apostles from any thing that is written in the Scriptures of the New Testament And to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them 2 If any men as Christians under heaven have had any such power in the dayes of the Gospel the Apostles and Elders in the Primitive times must needs have had it but this they utterly disclaimed as Paul in the 2 Cor. 1.24 Not for that we have Dominion over your faith but are helpers of your joy for by faith yee stand Yea the Lord Jesus when they strove for Domination forbids it saying Yee know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them and they that are great do exercise Authority upon them but it shall not bee so amongst you even so saith Peter speaking to the Elders Feed the flock of God which is amongst you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready minde neither as being Lords over Gods Heritage but being Examples to the flocke Why therefore the Christian Religion should bee built and supported by Violence and Cruelty when the Foundation was laid and the work carried on all the Apostles dayes and some hundreds of years after by a quite contrary meanes is a question would bee resolved by those whose strongest Arguments for the support of their Religion is take HIM IAYLOR For such is the difference between the way which the Apostles and Primitive Saints took in carrying on the worke of the Gospel and approving themselves to bee the Ministers of God and the way now used by the National Clergy that nothing is more unlike they being Ambassadours for the Prince of Peace did in his stead beseech and pray the disobedient to bee reconciled to God never stirring up the Nations to ruine and destroy by external Violence those that opposed them in their Ministry but as the Apostle Paul saith Being reviled we bless being persecuted wee suffer it being defamed wee intreat giving no offence in any thing that the Ministery bee not blamed but in all things approving our selves as the Ministers of God in much Patience in Afflictions in Necessities in Distresses in Stripes in Imprisonments in Tumults in Labours in Watchings in Fastings by Pureness by Knowledge by Long-suffering by Kindness by the Holy Ghost by Love unfeigned c. O yee Rulers of the World and Inhabitants of the Earth this was the way the Lord of all things with his Disciples and followers took to plant and establish the Doctrine of the Gospel in the hearts and affections of the Sons of men Be yee not therefore unlike those whom you say you follow by imposing your Doctrines and Traditions by the Violence of Penal Laws and Edicts to the Imprisoning Banishing and Spoyling the Goods of the Conscientious causing them as the Saints of old to bee Destitute Afflicted and Tormented although for their innocency and uprightness the world is not worthy of them 3 It is very plaine that the Lord Jesus himselfe in his Parable of the Tares and Wheat forbids any outward force or violence to bee exercised upon false Worshippers and Hereticks as such for by the Tares which he forbids the pulling up cannot be intended the Transgressors of the Second Table such as Theeves Murderers or any that should doe that Civil injury or wrong unto another which hee would not have done unto himselfe for all confesse with one consent that the Magistrates Authority reaches such neither can it bee intended that the children of the wicked one in any sense that visibly appear to be so should bee tolerated in the Church for that destroyes the power of Excommunication That which unavoidably then follows is That although men are Tares or the Chi●dren of the wicked one by erring in the worship of God yet should they not bee plucked up but tolerated in the Field of the World untill the Harvest shall come at the end of this World when the Angels who are to bee the Reapers and infallibly can distinguish between the Tares and the Wheat which no Magistrate now can shall gather the Tares in bundles and cast them into a Furnace of fire there shall bee wayling and gnashing of teeth Which Scripture so eminently concludes for a Toleration that the greatest Enemies to true Liberty have been at a great losse when they have endeavoured to make it speak some other thing as that Expositor is who sayes It seems to him not to note the duty of the Civil Magistrate but the event of Gods Providence that God would permit the co-habitation of the wicked in the World with the just not that Magistrates or Ministers should permit them and not by Civill punishment or Ecclesiastical remove them out of the Church or the World But if men did not fight against Truth they would not so eminently contradict their own sayings for who can beleeve that it should bee the minde of God to permit the co-habitation of the wicked in the World with the just as aforesaid and yet the Magistrate should not permit them but remove them by Civill punishment out of the World Hath the

charged with bringing eternall losse and dammage to him whom he destroyed Object But whereas the Example of the Kings of Israel and Iuda is made the greatest Pillar to support the Magistrates proceedings under the Gospel in persecuting and punishing the contrary minded in religious matters or such as shall be judged guilty of Blasphemy or Idolatry therefore the second Cannon of the English Church tells us Whosoever shall affirme that the Kings Majesty hath not the same Authority in causes Ecclesiasticall that the godly Kings had amongst the Iews shall be Excomunicated but if Magistrates would deferre persecuting any man for religion untill the Clergy had proved this unto them it would be happy for the most Consciencious under them and themselves too Answ. But in answer we deny not but the Kings of the Iews had power to punish Idolatours and Blasphemers and some other transgressors of the then Law of God which power was given them of God and written in plain precepts in the Mosaical Law but who tells them that Magistrates under the Gospel Dispensation hath such power hath the Lord Jesus said any such thing or if he have where is it written nay where is it written from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Revelations that Magistrates under the Gospel should have the same power in Religious causes as those under the Law If the judiciall Law be a rule for Magistrates under the Gospel to walk by then why must it be mangled in peeces and just so much taken of it as suites their interest and all the rest rejected Is it left to Magistrates now or was it ever left to the Jewish Kings to take what part of it they please to be a rule to them and reject all the rest and it is eminently remarkable how this plea is by the Clergy themselves that most contend for it made together invalid for by it they will stirre up the Civill Magistrate to punish those that dissents from them about the Doctrine and worship under the notion of Blasphemers or Hereticks and against such this Law must be held Authentick but he that smiteth or curseth his Father or Mother or stealeth a man or him that committeth Adultery or breaketh the Sabboth who were all of them sure to be put to death by the same judiciall Law yet in these cases they will not tell the Magistrate it is any rule but is to be rejected because here they cannot much make it reach their supposed Hereticks who they are more jealous of then any of the aforementioned ●●fenders But besides it is observable that the Kings of the Iews all the time they kept to the Law of God had advantages to give Righteous Judgement in Spiritual Causes which Magistrates under the Gospel have not for they had that standing Oracle of God amongst them the U●m and Thumum together with extraordinary Prophets which in all difficult Cases they had recourse unto and would infalliably direct them to judge according to the Mind of God but when these Kings became wicked and lost the benefit of the abovesaid Oracle and extraordinary Prophets then although they had the written Law amongst them did they run headlong into grosse mistakes that the True Prophets of the Lord were sure to be persecuted and those Prophets which would prophesie smooth things unto them were cherish●d although many times by hearkening unto them they lost their Kingdomes Lives and it is to be feared Souls and all How grosly did Ahab mistake when he accounted Elijah the troubler of Israel and caused poor Micaiah to be imprisoned and fed with bread and water of affliction because he would not help to deceive him at his 400. time serving Prophets had done So Ieremiah ●●s accused for seeking the hurt of his Nation and not the welfare and must be put in a miery Dungeon because he in plainness delivered the Mind of the Lord to the K●ng his Princes and People how therefore can the Gentile Rulers assure themselves they do any better then these Rulers did if they shall persecute the contrary minded in Religious matters s●eing they have neither an infalliable Oracle to inquire at nor extraordinary Prophet nor yet such written precepts as the Iews under the Mosaical Law had that did not onely direct them what offenders should be punished but also what the particular punishment to every several offence should be Furthermore it is very plain that the Gospel which we live under is clear another Dispensation far different in all its Ordinances and Administration from the Law under which the Lord Jesus is the only Law-giver who doth not as Moses proceed against the Transgressors of his Precepts by External force and power to the destroying them in their Bodies and Estates in this life but in long sufferings waits on men not willing they should perish but rather that they should repent and be saved And when any continues in disobedience to the Gospel his punishment is eternal in the World to come therefore as the Apostle Paul saith Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who will bring to light hidden things of darknesse and will make manifest the Councels of the Hearts and then shall every man have praise of God the same Apostle testifieth of himself that he was a Blasphemer and Persecutor 1 Tim. 1.13 and if the Mind of God had been that he should have suffered death in that Condition how should he have had repentance given him and been such a glorious Instrument in the Church as afterwards he was And it is too well known that the Iews are the great Blasphemers against our Lord Jesus Christ that is on Earth yet it is not the mind of the Lord they should be destroyed from the face of the earth for how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled wherein God hath promised to call them and make them the most Glorious Nation on earth or how can they be converted if they be not permitted where the Gospel is preached we speak not this in favour of any Blasphemy for our Souls abhor it but because all men that have Powers in their hands might be as tender of t●● Lives of Men as the most Righteous and Holy God is who would have men be imitators of himself in mercy and goodnesse towards others and he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and unjust If it shall still be objected that it is inconsistent with the safety and well being of any Nations to allow or Tollerate any more waies of worship then one we answer experience hath taught the contrary to several Countries of Europe as France and the united Provinces and several Countries of Germany besides those that say they are the Servants of God should conclude that to be most for the safety and well being of their Countries which is most agreeable to his heavenly will declared in his Word it was the ruine of