Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	day_n	good_a	life_n	10,536	5	4.7272	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54417	Samaritanism, or, A treatise of comprehending, compounding and tolerating several religions in one church demonstrating the equity, and necessity of the act and late vote of Parliament against non-conformists, from reason, the ancient church, and the opinions and practice of papists and Puritans now plotting and pleading for toleration.	Perrinchief, Richard, 1623?-1673.	1664 (1664)	Wing P1604; ESTC R36671	69,567	82

course hath been used towards Hereticks and Schismaticks since our Reformation in England it will not appear so great inhumanity to put in strict execution such Laws as have of old and later dayes been made against them In the Raign of Henry the Third saith Hollinshed were two Impostors hanged for giving out that they were Christs In the Raign of Richard the Second and Henry the Fourth of England Statutes were made for the putting Hereticks to death which stood in force until the Raign of Henry the Eighth who caused them to be repealed but in lieu of them he made such an Edict consisting of Six Articles called therefore The Whip with the six strings that thereby the Life's Blood of many a good and sober Christian was taken from them But in the First of Queen Mary the former Statutes as more for her Bloody purposes were revived and re-inforced of which as a thing too apparent for Impudence it self to encounter I shall not speak at present and but touch afterward But neither have there been wanting instances since the Reformation of such Capital Punishments executed For in the Fourth year of Edward the Sixth or Third as Mr. Stow hath it Joan Butcher Stow Chron. Ari. 3. Edw 6 otherwise called Joan Knell and vulgarly Joan of Kent was burn'd for her Heresie denying Christ to have taken Flesh of the Virgin Mary And on the 24th of April the same year George Paris a Dutchman was burnt in Smithfield for Arianism And in the same King's Raign an Anabaptist of Cholchester was burned And truly he that is of an Opinion that no man ought to suffer death purely for Religion may notwithstanding approve of the putting to death such as shall bear false witness in such a Caseat least as that of professing themselves to be that Person they in truth are not whereby manifest and intolerable evils are done to private Persons but much more to the Weal-Publick when one shall pretend himself to be some Prince or Publick Person Much more therefore he that shall have the Impudence to give out that he is Christ have he a particular Cant of his own to evade the common sense his words import when he comes into danger ought no less to undergo death than he that shall seek to Translate the Government of a People properly belonging to another Prince upon himself And as for Anabaptists though I think their Dogm's are a little purg'd of late over what some years since they have been as most Hereticks and Schismaticks are when they perceive they will not take nor be endur'd in their original Rankness yet if they stick but to one or two charged commonly on them such as are Denying to the Civil Magistrates Power of the Sword and affirming an Exemption of their Saints from human Laws suffering corporal death for the same they have no wrong done them neither can they plead Religion to protect them in causes of Civil cognisance as they are And to hold an opinion as many now adays do that their Governors have no Authority Ecclesiastical over them in things neither forbidden nor commanded by God's word is to draw very much nearer to the pernicious Extreams of the Anabaptist than can consist with the good opinion such have of themselves and would beget in others of being very moderate Men. But I return In the third of Queen Elizabeth one Jeffrey taught publickly Stow An. 3d. of Qu. Eliz. That John Moor was Christ who were both first whipt and then upon repentance were committed to Prison for half a year This was a favour shown upon repentance The more pittiful and strangely tender conscienc'd Judges were they in the Houses called a Parliament of late years who could discharge John Naylor an Impostor as foul and blasphemous as any of his Predecessors without any considerable notes of true repentance So far did the Doctrine of Liberty of Conscience drive many Patrons of it Again in the Seventeenth year of Queen Elizabeth Stow in Eliz. twenty-seven Anabaptists were brought to justice whereof two were burnt in Smithfield four renounced their Heresies at Pauls Cross and thereupon were released the rest were condemned to die but were only banished In the twenty one year of the same Queen Id. one Hammond a most insolent Arian denied Christ to be God and blasphemed Him and the Gospel and was burnt in Norwich And about three years after one John Lewis was burnt in the same place for the like Heresie And in the Raign of King James one Legate was burnt in Smithfield for Arianism For King James his Raign and Queen Elizabeth's it is generally known how they put not any Papist to death for their Religion though presently they were Sainted for dying in the Roman cause and as they will have it for Religion and if they will have it so so let it pass for me But then we must take leave to turn to and adhere to our old Notes which tell us of their Faith that it is Faction and their Religion Rebellion For were it so that the Laws interdicting Popish Priests of this Nation bred and ordained beyond the Seas from coming into this Nation this were no such sanguinary practise as many Popish Ministers loudly and indeed childishly give out For I would know whether the Supream power of this as well as any other Nation have not power to inflict the punishment of banishment upon lighter causes than this For instance Might it not be reasonable for an Act of Banishment to take place upon all such as should transport Wool or Fuller's-earth into foreign Countries The person that should do this returns into England and is put to death according to the Law But he cannot be said to be put to death for having transported prohibited Commodities but for breaking the Law of his Banishment No more can Popish Priests taking Orders from that Church and returning be said to suffer for taking Orders or for their Religion but for breaking the Act of their Banishment for by Law they all stand banished and if a greater punishment than banishment be not annext to that Decree to make it good instead of being sanguinary it will become ridiculous and ludicrous and so will the Authors of such Laws also In the year One thousand six hundred forty and one Ward Walker or Waller for as I take it the man after the Roman custom had three or four names being a Popish Priest was hanged at Tyburn where he confessed he had been banished no fewer than three or four times Do not such mockeries and contempt of Laws as this deserve death yea though the Law it self were unreasonable And now as to the other side with which we have to do the Puritan Faction let us see how they have been proceeded against before these three last Decads of years and whether it be so new and strange a matter that they should be molested or oppressed and the rather because of that Officious Author of the

under Persecution and moving pitty and compassion in those that would hear them Et maximè Episcopi Clerici horrenda dura perpessi quae commemorare longum est quando quorundam oculi extincti c Augustin Epist 5. Vide Epistol 166. of their hard measure and of the unreasonableness of the Civil Powers interposing in such matters which ought to be free were themselves most Cruel and Violent against others and especially the Bishops and Clergy men suffered horrible things which were tedious to rehearse putting out the Eyes of some and they cutt off the Hand and Tongue of one Bishop and some they slew right-out I say nothing of the cruel Slaughters saith he and Plundring of Houses by Nightinvasions and Burnings and that not only of Private Houses but Churches also into which Flames there wanted not some who cast in the Books of God Do not these words of Austine come somewhat near a description of our late furious and wicked zeal And what Possidonius in the Life of St. Austine Possidonius in vita August ca 9. Vide ca. 10. etiam addeth of this nature against that Holy Bishop calleth to our minds afresh the Perfecution of the Tongue against our Bishops The Donatists saith he railed at Austine called him Seducer of Souls both Publickly and Privately and said That he ought to be slain as a Wolfe to their Flock and that without doubt all their Sins should be forgiven them Augustin Epistol 68. who could bring this to pass And in another Epistle of St. Augustine is the Inhumanity of those pure Zelots the Circumcellians a branch of the Donatists against such as differed in Opinion from them described concluding In quibus omnibus illi non deponunt facta Latronum honorem sibi exigunt Matyrum i. e In all which they cease not to act the parts of Assasins and yet require the honour of Martyrs And so infinitely Devillish and Malicious was their humour that when they could not destroy the Orthodox by Butchering them they would needs terrifie them by Murthering themselves and so as Austin hath Quidam eorum miserabili instinctu Deo Homiuibus ingrati si suis caedibus nos vastare non ●ossunt ●uo nos exitio terrere credunt aut laetitiam suam quarentes de mortibus nostris aut tristitiam nostram de mortibus suis August Epist 61. either Solacing themselves in the destruction of us or sadding us by their own Deaths And such in some degree do our daies afford who because they cannot have their Will-worship will put themselves into such an untractable and brutish posture that if you let them alone they have their ends if you attempt to bring them to Justice they will create great hatred to their Adversaries by parting with their Lives rather than stir upon fair or necessary means or motives To conclude Legimus vidimus quotid● éque comprobamus Quando persecutio contra Ecclesiam oritur multo pejores persecutores Judaeos Haereticos quàm Ethnicos Hieronymus in Obad. v. 10. It is the observation of St. Hierome We have read we have seen we have daily found it true that when ever Persecution hath arose in the Church the Jewes and Hereticks were alwaies more grievous Persecutors of the Christians than were the Gentiles CHAP. V. A Continuation of the former Subject and particularly of putting Hereticks and Schismaticks to Death IN man may be said to be a Twofold Life Natural and Civil The First is an Union of the Natural parts of a man which being dissevered death follows understanding here the principal which are either simply Essential as the Soul and Body or such as are therefore called Vital because being corrupted or taken away a separation of the more Essential parts do immediately follow Mans Civil Life is that wereby he being a member of the Civil Body separated from that as all Integral parts of a Body Natural lofe that life of common Influence and Protection Hence it is that some Civil Lawyers do interpret Capital Punishment so often denounced against Hereticks in the Civil Law of the later Death as doth Huckleman and some others The Imperial Constitutions which absolutely inflict Capital Punishment on Hereticks Constitutiones Imp. Simplici●er capitis poenam instigen●es Haereticis non de Naturali sed de Civili Capite asserit Wessembeck in Vara. num 6. Huckelmanus Illustr Difput 34. Thes 14. lit 6. God li. 1. T it 5. God li. 1 Ti● 5 Sect. 4. Volumus esse publicum crimen c. are not to be understood of Natural but Civil Death as Transportation and such like But I make no doubt but this is too favourable and forced an Exposition as he that shall observe the Practice the best comment on the Law must confess For when the Code saith Manichaei undique expelluntur capite puniuntur And immediately before Manichaeo in loco Romano degere deprehenso caput ampuatur i. e. The Manichees are to be expell'd and punisht Capitally The Manichee that shall be found in the Roman Territory shall have his Head cut off cannot be meant of Civil Head I confess the most common punishments are such as we read in the same Title against the Manichees and Donatists made by Honortus and Theodosius Emperors viz. 1. We decree it a Publick Offence because an Offence against Divine Religion is an injurie to all wherefore we Persecute such with the Confiscation of all their Goods 2. We will likewise that they be Defeated of all Liberality and Succession coming to them by any Title whatever 3. Furthermore we leave such no Power to give or buy or sell or make bargains being convict 4. Inquiry ought to be made at his Death For if it be Lawful in matters of Treason to tax the memory of the dead not undeservedly ought there here also to pass a judgment 5. Therfore his last Writing is to be Null whether by Will or Codicil or any other way he hath made his Testament if found to be a Manichee 6. Neither do we suffer his Sons to Inherit unless they forsake their Fathers Errours For we allow Pardon to the Penitent 7. We like well that they feel the sting of our Authority who shall entertain them in their Houses by a culpable providing for them 8. And we Will that their Servants be faultless if avoiding such Sacrilegious Masters they pass into the Catholick Church by a more Faithful Service Thus far the Imperial Edict of Theodosius whereby we may easily discern how severe the Ancients were in chastising Hereticks and the several kinds of Punishments devised against them But the great question is Whether it be just to punish Hereticks with Corporal Death according to the Judgment of the Ancient Church The first instance of such severity is that of Priscillianus who was put to Death for his Heresie about which I find the Fathers themselves divided Hierome against Ctesiphon seems not only to approve of

it himself but to say that the whole Christian Church consented thereto Hierom. Advers 〈◊〉 Ctesiphon Quid loquar saith he de Priscilliano qui Seculi gladio totius Orbis authoritate damnatus est Why should I speak of Priscillianus who was Condemned by the Secular Sword and the Authority of the whole World But Severus Sulpitius liked not this Fact as appears by his words Severus Sulpit Sacrae Hist. Lib. Priscillianus cum soclis Capite plectuntur pessimo exemplo necati Priscillianus with his complices were beheaded being killed with a very ill precedent And Theognostus condemned Idacius or Ithacius Clarus an eminent Bishop of Spain Isidor Hisp DeViris Illustr ca 2. as witnesseth Isidorus Hispalensis because he procured the death of Priscillian as did also other Catholick Bishops as a bloody man yet by a Council held at Triers about the year 386. Vide Baron An 386 nu 25 he was absolved by the favour and intercession of the Emperor Maximus by whose Authority it was done August Epi. 48. St. Augustine is known to have been of an opinion once that Hereticks ought not at all to be Compelled to the true Faith but afterward his judgment altered and that as he saith from the experience he had of the excellent effect such coercion had and especially in that divers who at first took upon them the profession upon compulsion afterward embraced it sincerely and freely And in the same Epistle answereth the allegation of Pedro Paolo above mention'd which the Donatists likewise urged against the Catholicks persecuting them viz No example is to be found either in the Evangelists or Apostles writings whereby any thing was begged of Earthly Kings in behalf of the Church against the Churches Enemies Augustin Epistol 48. Quis negat non inveniri saith he Sed nondum implebatur illa prophetia Et nunc Reges intelligite c. Psal 2. i. e. Who denies that for as yet that Prophesie was not Fulfilled And now understand ye Kings c. Id Epistol 50 Yet do I not find that this Father approved of killing Hereticks but in another Epistle proceeds in a milder and middle way that is Neither to Tolerate the Heresie nor Condemn the Heretick to Death because that were to cut off all possibility of Repentance and Reconciliation to God and the Church which is very hard to deny any man before God doth And that God doth no man can say so long as he granteth him life And to me it seemeth not very difficult to answer Thomas his Arguments and Bellarmines who are for the death of Hereticks Thus then argues Thomas Thom. 22. qu. 11 Art 3. If he may be burnt who counterfeits money Why should not he that Forges and Publishes false Doctrine If he that counterfeits the Kings Letters deserveth death What doth he that counterfeits that falsifies the Scriptures and the Divine Letters of the Lord A woman that breaks the Conjugal Faith made to her Husband ought to die and not much more he who keeps not his Faith with God And he that takes away the Life of another unlawfully suffers the loss of his own for it shall not he therefore who destroys his own and neighbours Soul To these prety Analogies and colourable arguments for the Death of Hereticks we readily answer by granting all that the arguments crave which is that Hereticks deserve to suffer as much and more if you please than such notorious offenders against the Commonwealth and Civil Justice But must therefore this punishment be necessarily corporal and outward as the other whose cause is Civil this by Thomas his good leave follows not But rather the contrary That their Punishment should be Proportionable to their offence Their offence was Spiritual and their sufferings must be such too their offence was greater and so shall their punishment be in Soul by eternal Death Bellarm. De Laicis li. 3. ca. 21.5 Probatur c. And this answers Bellarmines six arguments to prove that Hereticks ought to suffer such Capital Punishment First because as all confess Hereticks may be Excommunicated lawfully therefore they may be kill'd The Consequence is thus drove Because Excommunication is greater punishment than temporal Death To which I answer That therefore it should have a greater death but that that death must be of the same kind doth not follow that is temporal Secondly he saith Experience teacheth that there is no other remedie But I deny any such experience For I make no doubt but the punishments mentioned even now in the Code will in a short time extirpate Hereticks and perhaps sooner considering what a pride some Hereticks take in suffering even death for their errors Thirdly His Third is that with Thomas his viz. Hereticks are Cheats and Counterfeits And so is his Fourth taken from a Womans falseness to her Husband The Fifth is because All the reasons that Galen alledged against Malefactors hold here Answ First That they should be punished they do Secondly that they would be punished with death also but not necessarily with Natural death but Civil death may suffice here and Eternal death hereafter Sixthly Lastly he saith It is a kindness to take obstinate Hereticks out of this life for the longer they live the more Errours they devise and increase greater damnation to themselves Ans We must distinguish between temporary and perpetual obstinacy And between that which may be and is certainly known to Judges for to be Judges must proceed according to the Evidence of the Fact not the probability But no man can certainly know that how ever a person be Actually obstinate he will persist in the same to his Death But notwithstanding there be no more than we have heard in Reason or Religion for their putting to death and not many examples are to be found in Antiquity yet for the last Five hundred years since Christ hath it been but too much put in practice under Roman-Tyranny For that Hot-spur Genebrard whose design it was to give us an account of the Churche's Practice speaking in defence of that cruelty shewed against the Kathari or Puritans who were burnt at Colen in the year of our Lord 1163. Genebrard Chronol An 1163. meerly for Religion and that none of the worse and endeavouring to justifie that Fact from ancient Precedents of the Church could it should seem find none much above 60. years older than that and that was of that Arch-haeretick Basilius a Physitian who in the last year of Christ 1102 was by the Command of the Emperor Alexius burnt at Constantinople for his Heresie But after-Ages abound with so many sad Instances of that nature that it were superfluous and tedious to rehearse them From all which I only inferr thus much That they who generally approved and practised such extream rigour could not but much more commend such more moderate means of reducing restraining and extinguishing them And I presume if I can shew what much more severe