Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	die_v	let_v	life_n	14,740	5	4.9962	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80850	Helpes for discovery of the truth in point of toleration: being the judgment of that eminent scholler Tho. Cartwright, sometimes Divinity-Professor in the University of Cambridge in the reigne of Queen Elizabeth of happy memory, and then a famous non-conformist, for which through the tyranny of the Bishops he suffered exile. Wherein the power and duty of the magistrate in relation to matters of religion is discussed; as also whether the judiciall lawes given by Moses to the Jewes are abrogate by the coming of Christ. More particularly in relation to some sinnes, viz. blasphemy, adultery, &c. Occasionally handled in a controversie betweene the said publike professor T.C. and Doctor Whitgift. Here also by the way is laid downe his judgment in the case of divorce, and that the party innocent may marrie again.	Cartwright, Thomas, 1535-1603.; Cartwright, Thomas, 1634-1689, attributed name.	1648 (1648)	Wing C700; Thomason E423_19; ESTC R204533	11,812	17

but this manner of speech is grounded upon the Law of God Deut. 17. 7. whereby it was provided that the witnesse which had accused should throw the first stone against the convicted person forasmuch therefore as both Moses and Zachary after Moses will have the Father accuser of his own Child if the knowledge of his inticement to Idolatry remaine with him alone therefore also they ascribe the killing of the guilty person unto them as a thing belonging to the duty of the Accuser Oh! but your words seem to give suspition of a difference between the Jewes and us what is that why that Christian Parents should rather put their children to death then to be with-drawne by them so that the Jewes have an absolute Commandement to put them to death but the Christians have it under condition if they cannot otherwise keep still the true Worship of God But where and in what shop is this difference quoined For how shall they be sure they shall not be with-drawne by him unlesse they procure him to be put to death And although they were out of the perill of being with-drawn how are others provided for whom he may corrupt And if it were possible that poison which he hath could not hurt any other where is the revenge of Gods glory which hath been dishonoured by such false teaching and in the maintenance whereof the zeale of Gods children as well under the Gospell as under the Law doth consist I conclude therefore that place of Zachary against your fond distinction that the same severity of punishment which was used against false Prophets then ought to be used now under the Gospell against false Teachers comparing one person and circumstance with another As he which hath fallen from God and gone about to draw others away to be handled according to the Law prescribed in that 13. of Deut. If this be extreme I am content to be so counted with the holy Ghost And though in some cases of Idolatry upon repentance life is given yet in this case and some other expressed in the Law as of open and horrible blasphemy of the Name of God I deny that upon repentance there ought to follow any pardon of death which the Judiciall Law doth require Besides It is an Anabaptisticall tenent to avoid all punishment of sin whatsoever to maintain that For whatever offence a man commit if he shew tokens of repentance he may be delivered from bodily punishment For what Murtherer what Traitor c. which though he be never so unrepentant and obstinate in his sin hearing that upon repentance there is a way to escape death will not inforce himselfe to shew all tokens of repentance Let this truth therefore be further enforced by this Argument Forasmuch as I have shewed out of the new Testament that he who killeth a man and taketh away his corporall life ought to die it followeth much more that he which taketh away the life of the soule should die and if it be meet to maintaine the life of man by the punishment of death how should the honour of God which is more precious then all mens lives be with smaller punishment established Therefore to close up this question I will adde this That the Magistrates which punish Murtherers and Thiefes and Treasons with other transgressors of the second Table severely and are loose in punishing the breaches of the first Table begin at the wrong end and do all one with those who to drie up many rivers continually fed by one fountain begin at the channells where it divideth and parteth it selfe into many armes which as it is an endlesse labour so is this also which they go about for whereas S. Paul teacheth Rom. 1. that God for revenge of the dishonour of his Name giveth men over to wicked minds to the committing all kind of filthinesse and of all kind of sins against the second Table be they never so horrible and so maketh the breach of the first Table the cause of the breach of the second It cannot be let the Magistrate lay as good watch as he can and aggravate punishments as much as he can I say it cannot be but where either the first table is broken or the breach not duly revenged but swarms of Treasons Thefts Murthers Adulteries Perjuries and such like must needs breake out in those Governments And therefore as the short and easie way to dry up the Channells and Rivers is to stop up the head and fountaine of all so the only remedy of purging the Common-wealth of these mischiefes is to bend the force of sharp and severe punishments especially against Idolaters Blasphemers Contemners of true Religion and of the Service of God And therefore I conclude that those which would have the severity of the Law against Idolaters c. abated doe at unawares not onely thereby utter the small price which they set either of Gods glory or of the salvation of their Brethren but withall declare themselves enemies to Common-wealths and of all both civill and godly honestie of life FINIS ☜ Calv. Instit. l. 4 c. 20. Sect. 15. Beza de comburendis Haereticis Eph. 2. pa. 97. ☞ 1. Argument Pag. 98. Pag. 99. Deut. 19. 2 Argument to prove the Judiciall Law still in force Ioe Rom. 13. pag. 101. Lev. 19. Iob. 31. 11. Gen. 26. 11. Gen. 38. 24. An objection answered 1. Answer 2. Answer Joh. 18. 31. Joh. 8. pag. 107. See also Bezae confessio Christianae fidei ca. 5. de Ecclesia sect. 44. Dr. VV. T. C. Ob. zach. 12. Reas. The answer of T. C. Pag. 112. Pag. 108. Arg. Pag. 117. Arg. pag. 118.

ever executed upon the wicked 4. Besides all this seeing this curse was annexed not only to the breach of the Morall Law but also of the Ceremoniall and Judiciall there is no just cause why the Morall Law should be said to be abrogated Secondly it followeth hereupon That those Judiciall Laws of Moses which are meerly Politck and without all mixture of Ceremonies must remain as those which hinder not the Attonement of Jews and Gentiles with God or of one of them with another Besides this It being manifest that our Saviour Christ came not to dissolve any good Government of Common-wealth he can least of all be thought to come to destroy that which himselfe had established Of this Point Dr. W. hath two contrary sentences one of Musculus which saith that the Judiciall Law is abrogate the other of Beza which is That the Judiciall Law being given to the Jewes is not yet abrogate so that if they had any estate of Common-wealth in the Land of Canaan they should be constrained to use that forme of Government which was given to them by Moses Now albeit those Lawes given unto the Jews for that Land doe not bind the Gentiles in other Lands forsomuch as the diversity of the dispositions of the people and state of that Country gave occasion of some Laws there which would not have been in other places yet forasmuch as there is in those Laws a constant and everlasting Equity whereupon they were grounded 2. And the same perfecter and further from errour then the forge of mans reason which is even in this behalfe shrewdly wounded is able to devise It followeth that even in making Politick Laws for the Common-wealth Christian Magistrates ought to propound unto themselves those Laws and in light of their Equity by a just proportion of circumstances of person place c. to frame them Now to prove this truth That the equitie of the Iudiciall Law remaineth not as a counsail which men may follow if they list and leave at their pleasure but as a Law whereto they be bound I shall prove by an Argument taken from that of the Apostle in 1 Cor 9. where after he had alleaged divers similitudes fetcht from the common use of men to prove that a Minister of the Gospel ought to be maintained upon the Churches charge least it might be objected that these were but humane reasons he citeth one of the Judiciall Laws as the eternall Law of God Deut. 25. 4. Thou shalt not muzzell the mouth c. Where it is manifest that he doubteth not to bind the Conscience of the Corinths unto the equity of that Law which was Judiciall and so urgeth it ver. 10. Likewise of the finding of the Priests in the service of the Altar commanded in the Law he concludeth That those which preach the Gospel should live of it And this maintenance of the Priest albeit in the manner of the provision it was meerly Ceremoniall yet as it was a reward of their service due by men as the punishments also if they had failed in their duties was meer Judiciall Whereupon it followeth that in those Judicialls to all the circumstances whereof we are not bound we are yet bound to the Equity of them It remaineth to shew that there are certain Judiciall Lawes which cannot be changed as that a Blasphemer contemptuous and stubborn Idolater c. ought to be put to death They which would have this left at liberty have nothing to alledge to colour their loosenesse but the coming of Christ and his passion but they do not see how this their arguing faultreth divers wayes For 1. It is a childish error to think that our Saviour Christ came to exempt men from corporall death which the Law casteth upon evill doers when as he came not to deliver from death which is the parting of the body from the soule but from that which is the separation both of body and soul from the gracious presence of the Lord And if it were so that our Saviour Christ had born in his Body this civill punishment of publike offenders it must thereupon follow not that it is in the liberty of the Magistrate to put them to de●th but that he must will he nill he if they repent keep them alive For if our Saviour hath answered that justice of God in his Law whereby he hath commanded that such malefactors should be put to death it should be great injustice to require that again in the life of the offender 2. Againe this opinion is injurious to the death of Christ for if he were for this cause made manifest in the slesh that he might destroy sin which is the work of the Devill 1 Ioh. 3. 8. this imagination of a liberty left to the Magistrate whether he will put them to death or not doth make Christ build againe that kingdome of sin which he hath destroyed For when both in common reason and by the manifest word of God the Lord giveth this blessing unto the punishment of such grievous offenders by death that others not only which see but also which heare of them have the bridle of feare put upon them whereby they are with-holden from the like crimes it must needs follow that whosoever maketh our Saviour Christ author of this loosenesse in not punishing such offenders maketh him forthwith to loose the bridle whereby others are stayed from throwing themselves down the hill of wickednesse which was before committed And what is if this be not to make our Saviour Christ a troubler of common-wealths Moreover if our Saviour Christ by his coming loosed these civill punishments and purchased this grace of his Father for blasphemers c. that if they could find favour in the eyes of the Magistrate they might escape the hands of death which the Law of God adjudgeth them unto How commeth it to passe that the Apostles to whom the Lord committed the publishing of all that pardon which he obtained for us did never make mention of the slaking of these punishments If our Saviour Christ had obtained this liberty it was worthy the preaching and therefore unlesse D. W. can shew something out of the writings of the Apostles to warrant this Sanctuary which he would so faine build to the support of blasphemers murderers c. it followeth that the Apostles by his saying have not answered the trust committed unto them But if all godly minds doe abhorre these absurdities there is no cause why they should like of this corruption of the Doctor whereupon all these depend Nay in that the Apostle putteth a sword in the hand of the Magistrate and in the use of it maketh him a Minister and servant of the vengeance and justice of the Lord against sinne He striketh through this opinion which imagineth that our Saviour Christ came to hang the sword of the Lords justice upon the pleasure and will of man For the Magistrate being the Lords Officer as

the Sheriffe is the Magistrates It is no more in his choice to with-hold the Sword which the Lord hath put in his hand to draw then in the power of the Sheriffe to stay the execution of that judgement which the Magistrate himselfe hath lawfully commanded Now seeing there is a sword in the Magistrates hand by the doctrine of the Apostles and that also which the Magistrate must of duty draw I would gladly know where that necessity of drawing this sword can be found if it be not in these crimes of Blasphemy c. which I have set downe And if he say that Paul by the sword understandeth all manner of civill punishments as well by the purse as by other bodily chastisements which spare the life I grant it but by an usuall manner of speech which is figurative and noteth the whole by the part he rather chose to utter those punishments by the Sword then either by the whip or purse whereby he did not only not exclude this necessity of punishing malefactors with death but laid rather a straiter bond upon the Magistrate to execute those which commit things worthy of death Hitherto generally of putting those to death which commit things against the Laws remaining still in force as they were in times past established by the bloud of the Transgressors Now I will come to the particular crimes set downe and first for the crime of Adultery It is to be considered that the crime of Adultery is a breach of the holy and ancient both institution and solemn Covenant of the Lord then that it is an injury done unto the innocent party in the most precious possession that can be in things pertaining to this present life joyned with dishonour cast not only upon the person but upon all his Children and in a manner on all those that belong unto him Thirdly that this fire doth not only wast the family where it is but maketh a breach into the Common-wealth whilst the right of inheritance either of Lands or Offices is oftentimes thus translated from the true Inheritors while the children which are so begotten having oft times lesse care and cost bestowed on them in their education become hurtfull Members of the Commonwalth whereby all may clearely see the perpetuall equity of the Law of God in the revengement of this sinne by death And when the Lord addeth this for a reason of putting the Adulterer to death that the evill may be taken out of Israel unto the heap of discommodities before rehearsed for fault of executing this Judgement of death he threatneth the whole Common-wealth with mischiefe to fall upon it and the equity of this punishment by death hath so lightsome colours upon it that it hath upholden it selfe against the ignorance and injustice of all which have not willingly put out that sparkle which standeth in the discretion of honesty For even before this candle light of the Law of God was set up not onely the godly as Job which were in some part reformed of the generall blindnesse but even those that were not of the Church of God as Abimelech the King of Gerar and the very Canaanite as long as there was any step of equity among them did see that the filth of this sinne was such as ought to be washed away with the bloud of the offenders For whereas Isaac feared the assault both of his life and of the chastity of Rebecka the King ordained that whosoever either laid violent hands on him or had to doe with his wife should die and in that Judah called for Thamar to be led forth to death in the Land of Canaan where himselfe was but a private man for that she being made sure unto an husband plaid the Harlot he gave to understand that the Canaanites who had even then filled a good part of that measure of sin unto the brinke whereof they came afterward did notwithstanding pursue Adulterers unto death And when the Lord did afterward give testimony to this punishment by the expresse words of his Law it is manifest that the Law which God hath written in the table of the hearts of all men pronounceth the sentence of death against Adulterers So that unlesse men will like Gyants fight against the light of nature or say that our Saviour Christ came to abolish that which in all times and with all Nations not altogether spoiled of the discretion of honesty and dishonesty was observed it followeth that the punishment of Adultery by death and consequently much more the punishment of incestuous meetings by death standeth in as full force now as ever it did before the coming of our Saviour Christ The exceptions against this Doctrine are of no value for if this be the truth of God there can be no prerogative against it unlesse he can shew some higher Court then heaven and some chief Justice above the Lord It is not denied but the punishments by death whereby men have established Lawes which themselves have for their better commodity devised may be either mitigated or taken away by those to whom it appertained neither is the Magistrate by any thing which I have set downe bound to mitigate the punishment of Theeves For their punishment may grow by the circumstance of place as in Scithia where all things lying open to the spoile had need to be locked up by the straighter punishment and sometimes by the disposition of the people lighter handed then others as if one had to do with the Lacedemonians or some Nation in whom that sinne had taken deeper root And I will not deny but even these crimes of Murther and Adultery may vary by divers circumstances and therefore the Magistrate may according to the quantity of the fault appoint the manner of death sharper or milder But that there is any place time or other circumstance which can lessen these crimes that they should not be worthy of death upon the reasons before alledged I utterly deny It may be objected that the Law of our Saviour Christ touching divorcement for Adultery Mat. 5. 32. had been to no purpose if the Adulterer ought of necessity to be put to death First he that urgeth this may be justly charged with a mistake in bringing in our Saviour Christ there as a maker of Lawes under the Gospell whereas he made none in those places but expounded the Law of God which he had made from the beginning the other refusalls made by the Jewes of their wives were never any Lawes but Permissions only and therefore in their abolishment there was no Law of God abrogated Secondly it was necessary to use that exposition notwithstanding that the punishment of the Law by death remained for besides that the Jewes being under the Government of the Romanes had those civill punishments by death suspended upon the pleasure of their Officers who were often corrupted our Saviour Christ fore-seeing all things did fore-see what loosenesse would follow in this