Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	power_n	spiritual_a	temporal_a	8,634	5	8.7196	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

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

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