Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	king_n	law_n	see_v	2,769	5	3.8029	3	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

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