Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	blood_n	sacrifice_n	sin_n	5,575	5	5.0409	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45473	A vindication of Dr. Hammonds addresse &c. from the exceptions of Eutactus Philodemius, in two particulars concerning [brace] the power supposed in the Jew over his owne freedom, the no-power over a mans own life ; together with a briefe reply to Mr. Iohn Goodwins Gbeisodikai, as far as concernes Dr. Hammond.	Hammond, Henry, 1605-1660.	1649 (1649)	Wing H615; ESTC R35984	37,214	48

to conceal it that there is a difference between these 38. And if there yet want any farther light to the clearing of this difference between this having power of my owne life so as to kill my selfe and that having power of my life so as to expose it or venture it in a good Cause I shall for the concluding of this Paper propose the plaine difference betweene them 39. And that may be taken from the nature of the word exposing for that we know signifies no more then to submit it to an hazard and so to expose my life is to hazard my life In doing so all that can be affirm'd of me is no more then this that I am willing or content and by my actions expresse that willingnesse to lose my life if God please to permit it to be taken from me 40. When my life is thus lost three things must necessarily concurre to it 1. The Violence of the invader 2. The Providence of God permitting him to invade and 3. My not resisting or my not using the meanes which were naturally possible for me to use to prevent or avoid the violence of this invasion as when Christ might have used Angels and another slight and a third complyance and caution but chooseth not to doe so Of these three the onely efficient cause of the action of killing is the malicious violent invader sure neither the providence of God in permitting nor my owne meeknesse or obedience to Christ in following him though it be to the very Crosse 41. In this case supposing that it be for a good End that I now expose my life it is also supposed that the pursuance of that end is either duty in me a thing that I am absolutely bound to as the Confession of Christ c. or else that t is excesse of Charity to which though it be not under particular precept yet the Intuition of some great and glorious end doth so invite and incline me that t is heroicall Virtue in me to doe it and that which though God doth not so require it of me as that I sinne if I doe it not yet he hath promised to reward abundantly whensoever 't is done for his sake 42. In the former of these cases when the pursuance of that good end is strict duty as in case I am commanded to confesse Christ or to assist my Prince in protecting my Country There as my endeavour is required of me by that precept so is my utmost endeavour such as I must not remit whatsoever the danger be And if that danger prove to be the utmost danger even of my l●fe it selfe yet the command of Constancy of not fearing or fainting and the character of perfect love given by Saint John that it casts out fear and the denunciations against the fearfull or cowardly doe all joyne to extend my obligation to pursue this so necessary End without any receding and if the Crosse it self lie in my way toward this end to take it up i. e. willingly to submit to Gods Providence which hath thought fit to call me to this Tryall if it be even of resisting unto bloud And so still all that I doe is the constant patient chearfull submission to Gods Will in his providentiall disposing of my life and in permitting the injurious to take it from me and nothing else an absolute choise of Obedience but not of Death a sacrificing to duty all desire of Life but not otherwise undertaking to dispose of it 43. Hence is it that my venturing of my Life doth not clear or free the Invader from any degree of sinne or guilt in thus taking it away from me 'T was but a Sarcasme or Trope in Julians Souldiers to say they did not wrong the Christians by killing them but onely hasten them to their desired home And the Fathers were able to answer the Paralogisme by the rule in Ethickes distinguishing betwixt a mixt and absolute will and so concluding their slaughters to be Injuries though they were willingly embraced the Persecutors to be Persecutors still though the other were Martyrs 44. Which is a demonstrative proof that 't is the Invader not Sufferer whose act the killing is supposed to be and so that I am not in this case of exposing my Life supposed to give any Consent that he shall kill me or consequently to divest my self of the power of my life or indeed to have any such power over it For whatsoever is absolutely in my power to dispose of that I may lawfully consent to part with That if I doe part with it ipso facto and jure * becomes his to whom I part with it and if there be any errour in it 't is chargeable on the giver who was thus profusely Liberall above the proportion And consequently for him to take and use it is in him no sinne As that part of my Estate which is in my power may by me be past over to another by gift and being so is lawfully possest and enjoy'd by the receiver 45. And therefore I say if the lawfullnesse of the exposing my Life would conclude me to have a power over it it must be as perfectly lawfull for the Tyrant into whose hands my Life in the confessing of Christ is by me exposed to take that Life from me as 't is for the poor man into whose hands my goods are by me put in obedience to Christs command of mercifulness to receive and carry away those goods which being an absurdity too grosse to be defended by any will I suppose incline this Author to discerne the distance betwixt the questions as the one is by him and as the other was by Doctor Hammond proposed 46. And in like manner also when the End pursued by me is though not absolutely necessary yet better and more excellent there the Precept of being faithfull unto death and the promise of reward made to him tht layes down or loses his life for Christs sake doe as much oblige to constancy at least as much assure that such constancy shall be acceptable to God and that the more by how much greater the hazards and terrours and temptations are to the contrary as when the particular matter of the action was under precept And so that other accidentall difference will make no variation in the main nor make it at all probable that exposing my life heroically was not warranted by God when exposing it necessarily was supposed to be so it being as certain that God doth warrant me to doe that which he commends as what he strictly commands to me And therefore what was said in the case of duty doth as truly hold and so needes not to be repeated againe in this case of more excellent also 47. Having thus far proceeded it will now be unnecessary for me to answer the Arguments which this Author addes in this matter because the Question being by him changed from that which was proposed by Doctor Hammond and stated Negatively to another which

hazard of lives in case of violation of Lawes unlesse it be that he that hath power of their lives placeth that power in that Magistrate to whom they have rendred or subjected themselves That this is God and not the People I will not conclude to be Mr. Goodwins opinion because 't is his maine designe to prove the contrary but that those words of his and his distinction so explained will bear that sense I mean that they will be true and acknowledg'd by him that acknowledges the power of Life to be onely in the Supream Governour deriv'd from God I conceive sufficiently manifest consequently that though this power be said to be in the People remotely improperly and indirectly and so in Mr. Goodwins notion of eminently c. yet 't is not from the People but from God onely that the Governour hath it 63. The reply will be as ready and easie also to all force or concludency of his next Argument that which is taken from the Peoples power to make or consent to the making of Capitall Lawes For 1. Mr. Goodwin cannot be ignorant that it hath been sometimes in the power of Kings to make Lawes without the addition of any consent of the people such were the Principum placitae among the Romans and after it was thought fit by Princes to lay some restraint on themselves both that they might be better advised and more readily obeyed then though the peoples consent hath been deem'd necessary yet doth this belong onely to the regulating and modifying the exercise of this power the Fundamentall power it selfe of life being in the Supream Governour before the making these Lawes Now 't is very easie to distinguish betwixt these two the power and the Regulating of the exercise of that power the power in the grosse and the determination of that power to this or that particular action The interposition of man in the latter of these doth no way prejudge the sole priviledge of God in the donation of the former of them As the Grace of God is his peculiar and proper gift and yet man may give Directions and Rules how we are to act by that Principle what use it will best become us to make of that pretious talent entrusted to us And therefore for the great Noon-day-Truth which Mr. Goodwin induceth from these and the like considerations viz. That men by nature have such a power over their lives as voluntarily c. to expose them to the stroke of publique justice in case they shall offend c. This being granted is of no force against Doctor Hammond but doth with him rather suppose a Publique Justice able to strike i. e. a power of life already vested in the Magistrate before this consent of the People or abstractedly without respect unto it And so still it is not from this consent of the People that this power is deriv'd to the hand of Publick Justice but from some other higher principle viz. that of God to whom {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the avenging or punishing of offenders peculiarly belongs and no other but in subordination to and substitution from him 64. And what if the King as M. Goodwin next alledgeth have no power to take away the life of his Subjects without cause or for every cause but onely such as by Law are punishable with death what if he cannot command them to be their own Executioners Doth it follow from hence that therefore he hath the power of life from the People not from God Doth the power of God so consist in doing causelesse or irrationall things that nothing which is exercis'd moderately or ordinately can be imagin'd to come from him I shall suppose that God himselfe hath perfect dominion over the world and yet that he observes rules of all-justice and goodness in the exercise and dispensing of that power and hath not power of doing any thing contrary to those rules of eternall Justice which he hath prescribed to himself which to do by all wise men hath been counted an act of imbecility not of power And consequently how naturall is it that he should thus determine and limit his deputies also give them power of life over their Subjects and yet command them to exercise that power with that just temperament which either naturall or civill or municipall Lawes shall dictate and prescribe them And therefore Master Goodwins arguing is very loose and unconcluding That if the power which the King hath over the lives of the poeple were immediately from God then he might lawfully execute the same and take away the lives of men without any mediating direction or warranty from any Law For sure the same God that gives the Magistrate the power of life doth command him also not to throw away that pretious trust causelesly makes him his Minister for wrath to them that doe evill and contrary wise a rewarder to them that doe well and though he subject him not to any earthly superior but reserve him to his own severe tribunall yet he subjects him to reason and rules of Justice and when he hath undertaken to governe by that Standard to the positive municipall Lawes of that particular Kingdome also and hath been as particular in prescribing Lawes to the Prince to avoid Oppression or acts of Height as to Subjects to abstaine from resistance 65. As for that proofe which Mr. Goodwin produceth to enforce his arguing viz. That the execution of no commission immediately issued by God ought to be suspended upon or determin'd or regulated by any comission or constitution of men It is as far from truth as it could well have been contriv'd to be As will appear if it be considered that the word Commission 1. signifies not an absolute or positive Command but onely a power or investiture of Authority or if a Command yet that 2. onely an Affirmative precept the nature of which is that it binds not ad semper and so consequently may be suspended at some time by the free will of him that hath the Commission much more if any weighty reason interpose to determine his will 3. That this Commission is onely Generall and indefinite without application to particular cases referring that application to the conjuncture and concurrence of circumstances which ordinarily are humane and Politicall and consequently to the discretion of Rulers judging by those circumstances The intervenience of which circumstances makes the particular exercise of that Commission convenient and seasonable in one place and at one time and consequently where they do not intervene there the exercise of it may be at that time and place suspended as unseasonable As when the shedder of blood is by God commanded to be put to death and yet some men accidentally and invountarily fall under that Title it must be in the power of the Magistrate to suspend the execution of that sentence or else the Innocent must loose the benefit of the Citty of refuge and run the same fortune with the