Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	bishop_n	people_n	presbyter_n	5,436	5	9.9023	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34420	Monarchy, no creature of Gods making, &c. wherein is proved by Scripture and reason, that monarchicall government is against the minde of God, and that the execution of the late king was one of the fattest sacrifices that ever Queen Iustice had ... / by Iohn Cooke ...	Cook, John, d. 1660.	1651 (1651)	Wing C6019; ESTC R20620	90,353	192

Parliament leaving the body of Antichristian Goverment by Bishops as before or if the body of Antichrist come to be destroyed and the thighes leggs or feet onely remaining in any Coercive Presbiters when Kings will play at small games rather then sit out and joyne with any people in the world to persecute the people of God see the end of such Kings ver 14. They shall make warre with the Lambe and the Lambe shall overcome them for he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithfull and this Arraignement of Monarchs and Grandees for abusing the Spouse of Christ shall not be onely upon the puritie of Intention which will not Iustifie any Irregular Action for to Act Irregularly upon an Impetus or Impulsive spirit makes Scripture uselesse but according to naturall Iustice and common equitie that when Kings shall proclaime the Saints Traitors Heretiques and Rebells because they will not fall downe and worship the Lord according to human inventions and shall raise Armies to destroy them as enemies to their Crowne and dignities such Kings have forfeited their Civill Rights as the Kings of Canaan did and honest faithfull righteous men chosen by the people shall be their successors to whom by vertue of the equity of the Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy the people are to be true and faithfull as to the Lord for whom and by whose lawes they preside and regulate their Administrations and other obligation lies upon no man by vertue of any such Oath that he formerly tooke for there is no other successor the wisedome of God hath in Iustice so ordered it and He that is Truth when men are lyars is also wise when they are fooles for the oath was only binding to the positique capacity to be true to the King so farr as he was true to the Lawes and safety of the people Hee that tooke it in any other sense made the King a God infallible and impeccable when he sets up a standard of defiance against them is any man so unsound in his intellectualls as to thinke that the oath obliges him to stand still and suffer his owne throat to be cut No oath can tye any man to doe or suffer that which is destructive to humanity and as for Christians certainely by that statute of Numb 30. what ever any Christian vowes without the consent of her husband Iesus Christ is meerely voyd in Law and a precipitate rash oath as that of David against Nabal I Sam. 25. 22. binds not but to repentance Levit. 5. 4. 5. If it be objected that Iosua fought against Kings of another Nation as Gods people in England did not what forraigne assistance hath been in that kinde I shall not dispute but the answer is very easie that the neerenes of the relation much aggravates the offence on the Royalists part If ambitious Princes would give Commissions of Array against forraigners and not to destroy their owne people then it might be but a sin against the sixt and eight Commandement but to destroy his own Countreymen is a complicate offence of Treason also and a sin against the fift Commandement as well as the other two to betray those that trusted him and certainly had not the Parliament executed the late King the Danes or some others might have destroyed them for God binds his people by his legall Commands to Act and accomplish his designes and to destroy all Tirants and oppressors and to say who ever heard of such a thing before is an argument wherewith onely ignorant poore people are taken as the people said when Iesus Christ cast out the dumbe Spirit Matth. 9. 33. 34. it was never so seene in Israel he casteth out Divells through the Prince of Divells wee doe not read that God ever dealt with any Saint as with Iob yet Iob was no hypocrite I say the Lord hath layd an absolute Command upon the Parliament to proceed as they have done upon paine of his high displeasure and being guilty of high treason against the Majesty a terme not fit for any mortall man because higher then that wee cannot give of Heaven and of being utterly destroyed if they had not done it and that stroke put England into a salvable condition for doe but consider how severely the Lord dealt with Israel and Iudah when their Princes turned Lions and Wolves Then the Lord gave them a King in his anger 1 Sam. 8. 7. and Hosea 13. 11. ver I gave them a King in mine anger and tooke him away in my wrath will any man say that Sauls office of being King was of Divine ordination which was done in anger all Gods ordinances are appointed in love for the good of his people and Divine and humane society but Sauls being made King displeased the Lord and it is very remarkable that on the day and at the very houre of election Samuel dealt justly with them and told them of their great evill in rejecting God and his Goverment 17 18 19. and Samuel called the people together unto the Lord to Mizpeh and said unto the Children of Israel thus saith the Lord God of Israel I brought up Israel out of Egypt and delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all Kingdoms and of them that oppressed you and yee have this day rejected your God who himselfe saved you out of all your adversities and tribulations and yee have said unto him Nay but set a King over us but though the Kingly Government displease God yet observe how gently Saul behaved himselfe to the people 1 Samuel 11. 12. There were some that would not have Saul raigne over them which the people would have had put to death but Saul said ver 13. There shall not be a man put to death this day whereas the Monarchs of the world make men offendors for a word one man for speaking in jest that he will make his sonne heire of the Crowne meaning a house that had that signe in Cheape-side and another for saying there goes Ed. 6. in Coleman-street have been most Tirannically murdered and executed Saul was never so bloody minded But one passage I may not omit the Holy Ghost foreseeing that Monarchy would have many Advocates to plead for its divine right for the satisfaction of all that will not wilfully shut out the light calls this importunitie of the Israelites to have a King to be a great wickednes and such a sin that the Lord will not let goe unpunished but sent unreasonable weather thunder and raine in wheat harvest Proverbs 26. 1. As snow in summer and as raine in harvest so honor is not seemely for a foole I hope England will not forget the wet season in summer 1648. how it was mid-winter at mid-summer and certainely the works of God have a voice and are most eloquent to his owne people what the Lord did to the Israelites for their asking a King England hath great

to feare the Lord his God to keep all the words of this Law and these Statutes to doe them ver 20. that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren and that he turne not aside from the Commandement to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong his dayes in his Kingdome he and his Children in the midst of Israel And they read those words I will set a King over me which is spoken by the people Thou shalt set a King over thee as if God had commanded a Kingly Goverment in Canaan which was only permissive as the sin of Adam let them have a King at their owne perill saith the Lord The Lord foresaw that the Israelites would rebell and cast off a happy Goverment by the heads of the people and Iudges and God permits it and Moses speakes of the election and dutie of a King the election is from the people they will have a King whether the Lord will or no where by the way wee may take notice how bold many have beene and poore deluded Royalists still are to wrest the Scripture for the advancement of Monarchy when men dare say that in the Hebrew it is that Moses commands them to elect a King which the holy Scripture reproves in them as the greatest insanity madnes in the world that when they may have honest Religious men to go in out before them that will not oppresse them nor exalt themselves above their brethren that they will notwithstanding inslave themselves to the Arbitrary and lawlesse Iusts of one man and his posteritie whether they be Idiots Children knaves Theeves Murderers Fornicators Gluttons Drunkards Idolators or Women which though never so wise Religious and mercifull as by reason of the tendernes of their spirits and want of temptation I believe there are more godly women then men in the world yet it is against the law of God and Nature to make Millions of men subject to the commands of a woman but blessed be God that the knowledge of the Hebrew language is not necessary to bring an English man to heaven Iosua had the honour to conduct them into Canaan and they tooke it into possession but there was a remnant of the Canaanites left unsubdued to prove them as the law is Deut. the 20. from the 16. 10 the 18. which I the rather mention for the Illustration of the equitable proceedings in Ireland the Lambe Iudges and makes war in Righteousnes Revel 19. 11. Every Souldier hath been as a Iudge to execute the Iudgment written Psal 149. 9. farre be it from Gods servants to slay the righteous with the wicked Genes 18. 23. No such beatificall sight as to see a Murderer that hath imbrued his hands in the effusion of Innocent blood to suffer the most painefull and shamefull death that can be imagined but the Children of those Murderers ought not to be put to death for their originall sin as we read in the case of Amaziah 2 Kings 14. 5. 6. And it came to passe as soone as the Kingdome was confirmed in his hand that hee slew his servants which had slaine the King his Father But the Children of the Murderers he slew not according unto that which is written in the booke of the law of Moses wherein the Lord commanded saying the Fathers shall not be put to death for the Children nor the Children be put to death for the Fathers but every man shall be put to death for his owne sinne Deut. 24. 16. And many that by reason of their wicked principles and adherence to the Pope are not fit to be trusted in Garisons yet receive rents for their houses or estates there Ezek. 18. 20. The soule that sinneth it shall dye the sonne shall not beare the iniquity of the Father neither shall the Father beare the iniquitie of the Son the righteousnes of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickednes of the wicked shall be upon him Now by the equitie of that law Deut. 20. 16. where Gods people shall reside they being chief in Command may and ought for their owne securities expell delinquents and malignants out of London or any Garrison in England or Ireland for a time or for ever as may conduce to the Weale publique and their owne safeties whose lives are so precious in the Lords esteeme But here I meet a Goliah in the way that threatens much but the spirit of God is not in it and therefore it is but as a statue that God had given the land of Canaan by promise to Israel and therefore they might justly maintaine a warr to destroy the Canaanites Hittites Amorites Perizites Hivites and Iebusites and there being no command to destroy the Gibeonites Deut. 20. 17. therefore the league with them was lawfull Ios 9. wherein the warr may be judged lawfull on both sides for Iosua to fight having a command from God and the Canaanites to defend their possession not knowing of any such command but is there the same reason to destroy ancient Monarchyes when they oppose Iesus Christ and wil not suffer his people to enjoy their liberties which he hath purchased for them by his precious blood Answer Yes doubtlesse there are as evident promises for the Churches of Christ in this age of the world to be redeemed out of Antichristian bondage by the Moseses Iosuas Sampsons Gideons Iepthahs and Samuels which the Lord shall raise up to be instruments in his hand to save his people as there were in Moses and Iosuas ages that the Church of Israel should be delivered from the Egyptian slavery and reason to me cleerely makes it out that if a promise of an earthly Canaan were a ground of the Churches Warre much more their spirituall liberties that if I may defend my house by force from theeves and robbers certainly I may defend my selfe in the exercise of my spirituall liberties which are ten thousand times deerer to me if I may fight for a peece of glasse may I not engage for a precious pearle that is invalluable The Kings of Canaan might have pleaded antiquity succession and the peoples consent which no King can plead against Gods people in the matter of their spirituall priviledges God will have the Monarchs of the world know that whatever Civill right they may pretend to their Kingdomes where they have by force or flattery gained the peoples consent as the honest man parts with his purse to save his life yet they must not upon paine of forfeiting their Royalties persecute his friends and servants Kings that stile themselves Defenders of the Faith if they prove offendors of the faithfull God will take away their Kingdomes in a way of Iustice and righteousnes when any of the 10. Kings having formerly given their power and strength to the beast Revel 17. 12. shall afterwards cut off his head as Henry the eight used the Pope in taking away his supremacy and making himselfe head of the Church by Act of