Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	great_a	king_n	lord_n	8,462	5	3.6604	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

therefore no reason why the World should persecute and hate his own Fifthly For Magistrates to inflict temporal punishments upon any of their Subjects for not conforming to their decrees that enjoyn any Spiritual Worship or Service is undoubtedly a breach of that Royal Law which sayes That whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do you even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets and is a sure and standing rule by which all men if they would deal ingeniously by themselves might measure the justice of their proceedings towards others for who that was not a desperate enemy to himself would put out another mans eye if he were sure his own should be put out as soon as he had done as he was to be served by the Iudicial Law neither would those that are forward to persecute be very zealous in their proceedings if they were sure that those whom they persecute should have power on their sides to meet the same measure unto them and this is worthy of observation that this rule of doing as we would be done unto can be received and pleaded by all sorts of men whilst they are under affliction and persecution but who remembers it when they have power to afflict and persecute others the Papists themselves when out of power in this and other Nations can plead against persecution for their conscience as they did in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth procuring the Letters of the Emperour and other Princes to interceede for some places to be allowed where they may worship by themselves but in this they desired more than themselves would allow to others when in power so many of the Protestants where the Magistrate is different from them in Religion can be very well pleased with a tolleration and Martin Luther in his Sermon of the Good Shepheard engl●shed by W. G. in the year 1581. speaking of the Kingdom of Christ saith it is not governed at all by any force or power but by outward Preaching alone that is by the Gospel why therefore ●●nnot the Protestants who would seem to have an honourable Esteem of this man be of the same Spirit and the Papists be as much for Liberty in prosperity as in adversity seeing the Lord Jesus hath not directed at one time to the use of force and violence in the work of the Gospel and at another time if the civil sword be not to be procured then to use arguments and perswations no at all times the rule which his Disciples must take notice of sayes whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do you even so to them for with what measure ye meet it shall bemeasured to you again And because mystery Babylon hath not regarded these sayings but exerciseth all manner of cruelties and deaths upon such as cannot believe as she believes and practises therefore God will find out a way to retaliate upon her all the blood of his servants and in the cup which she hath filled shall it be filled to her double how much she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her for she saith in her heart I sit a Queen and am no widdow and shall see no sorrow Therefore shall her plagues come in one day Death and Mourning and Famine and she shall be utterly burnt with fire for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her and the Kings of the earth who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her shall bewail and lament for her and her Merchants which are the great men of the earth who Traffique with her in things costly delicate and of esteem in the World and inslaves the souls of men or as by the margent it may be read bodies and souls of men these also shall mourn over her for no man buyeth their Merchandize any more and thus the fierceness of Gods wrath will over take her to the sinking of her like a Milstone into the bottome of the Sea because the great weight of innocent blood lyeth upon her for in her will be found the blood of Prophets and of Saints and all that were slain upon the earth he that therefore would not partake with her in any of her plagues let him flee from her and partake not with here in any of her sins one of the greatest being the persecution of men for keeping a good conscience for except the great God should cease to be what he is if men repent not of their deeds there will be as certainly punishment as there is sin and it shall not be the arm of flesh that wil be able to support this strumpet although many Kingdomes should ingage in her quarrell 〈◊〉 shall the wisdome and prudence of great states men be able to keep of her judgements for if men should cease to do any thing against her yet God will make the very Elements to fight against her and will contend with her by famine and Pestilence yea and Sword to although she feares it not for God will stire up the 10. Kings to do his will upon her and by his great works judgements that he will manifest in the Earth will he gain himself a name and great honour and glory even so Amen As it is no waies lawful from the word of God for Christian Magistrates in the daies of the Gospell to destroy and root out the contrary minded in religious matters although Idolaters so such proceedings may somtimes prove inconsistent with the very being of Nations for suppose any Nation were wholly Heathenish idolators and the word of God coming in amongst them should convert the cheife Magistrate and one twentieth part of the Nation more must he then with that twentieth part destroy all the other nineteen if they will not be converted but continue in their Heathenish Idolatry it cannot possibly be suposed to be warrantable and this reason holds good likewise against the rooting up and destroying Heriticks out of the world because if the Church proceeds against any of her members to Excomunication the Churches deportment towards him so cast out is to be the same as towards a Heathen so saith Christ himself If he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen man and a Publican who for the aforesaid reason is not to be destroyed because he is so and moreover seeing the Lord who is aboundantly Mercifull many times give repentance not only to the unbeleeving Idolater but also to the excomunicated person he therefore that destroyes the body of such a one doth as much as in him lyeth destroy his soul also for the Lord you see brings into his vineyard some at the third hour some at the sixth some at the ninth and others at the eleventh he therefore that shall destroy any at the third or sixth hour of the life hinders his conversion that possiblely may be called at the ninth or eleventh hour And so may be

the shallow inventions of the Romish or any of the National Churches are able to produce yet wholly taken away which the Author to the Hebrews notably proves saying Then verily the first Covenant had also Ordinances of Divine service and a worldly Sanctuary for there was a Tabernacle made the first wherein was the Candlestick and the Table and the Shew-bread which 〈◊〉 called the Sanctuary and after the second vail the Tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all They had also their High-priest and offerings and linnen Ornaments belonging to this Covenant but saith our Author If that first Covenant had been faultless then no place had been sought for the second and he taketh away the first that he might establish the second And now under the second Covenant which is the Gospel the Romish Bishop or any man on earth cannot be our High-priest For we have such an High-priest who is set on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the heavens a Minister of the Sanctuary and of the Tabernacle which the Lord pitcheth and not man And under this second Covenant God hath not promised his presence to any Temple built of wood and stone as of old For now the most High dwelleth not in Temples made with hands as the superstitious Clergy would perswade us but where two or three are gathered together in the name of Christ there is he in the midst of them although it be in a House by a Rivers side on a Mountain or in a Wilderness such little respect hath he to place As little respect hath God to persons because of any honour or esteem they may have in the world either for birth or natural endowments but such as usually are foolish weak and base in the eyes of the world doth he make use of in the work of the Gospel that so the learned Doctors and Masters of Arts may not have wherewithall to boast Which despised way of the Gospel we well know becomes a great stumbling block to the Gentile Nations as in the first delivery of it it did unto the Iews who would not receive the Lord of life nor his Doctrine because not accompanied with that earthly glory which their corrupt hearts affected and rather would retain that exploded dispensation of the Law which God had departed from than they would receive the glorious Gospel by those hands the wisdome of God thought fit to tender it for which obstinacy as the Apostle Paul saith The wrath of God is come upon them to the uttermost even to the laying waste their Temple and Cities the great slaughter of their persons and captivating their posterity as at this day Let therefore the Gentile Nations fear but more especially this Nation for some such spirit seems to appear amongst those that would retain their empty and dead forms of worship which God hath shewed his displeasure against and have no footing in the whole Book of God rather than they will receive the pure way of God without the mixture of humane Inventions and Traditions But the bare rejection of Truth and imbracing of error is not all the evil that the Nations generally are ingaged in by the Church of Rome and her followers but for to compleat and fill up the measure of their iniquities like Nebuchadnezzar nothing less must be inflicted on the servants of the most High God that cannot bow down to the golden Image of their Inventions than the fiery furnace of Persecution many times unto death it self And this the people of the Lord must endure it being as certain their portion to be persecuted as it is the practice of the false Church to persecute who build their superstructures of Will-worship on no other foundations but Violence and Cruelty else what mean these imprisonments banishments wars and massacres which have been made in Europe for Religion what troubles and desolations in Germany civil commotions in France cruelties exercised in the Netherlands by that Darling of the Romish Church the Duke of Alva others what M●ssacres in France Piedmont and Ireland to carry on the business of Religion for the satisfaction of a blood-thirsty and insatiable Clergy when the Disciples of the Lord Jesus were to use no other violence against those that rejected them than to shake the dust from their feet which should be a witness against them at the Tribunal of Jesus not Cesars yea this Popish principle of propagating Religion by the Sword hath reached the poor Americans many hundred thousands of them having been destroyed because they would not be Proselites no other cause being to be given for it cannot be supposed those remote and simple people had so much as known the Spaniard much less done any injury unto him our own Nation hath also felt the rage of this fury both before and in the Reign of Queen Mary and the wise may judge whether the Bishops endeavours to impose their Liturgy in Scotland with their cruelties in England did not contribute much to our late unhappy troubles But certainly if the Romish and National Clergy were guided by the Spirit of God the Authority of Scripture or force of Argument to support their forms of worship they would not then impose them by external force when by such proceedings they render themselves altogether unlike the Lord Jesus the Prince of peace who came not to destroy mens lives but to save them But on the contrary it will evince to all that have their eyes open how like they are to that woman which is drunken with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus in whom will be found the blood of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain on the earth Although as our Lord and Master hath foretold in killing others she may think she doth God service Lest therefore those unchristian principles of persecution for conscience which troubleth the world should take root in this Nation to the stirring up mens mindes to shed the blood of the innocent the guilt whereof is able to sinke the most flourishing Kingdomes into an ocean of misery and calamity we have here following written some arguments which we humbly offer to all men to prove how contrary to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus and good reason it is for any Magistrate by outward force to impose any thing in the worship of God on the consciences of those whom they govern but that liberty ought to be given to all such as disturb not the civil peace though of different perswasions in Religous matters In which Discourse we neither desire nor design to diminish any of that power which God hath given to the Kings Majesty that now Reigneth whom we own to be chief Magistrate and Governour of these Nations over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal and to all his Commands that do not oppose the Scriptures of 〈…〉 we yeeld active obedience not only for wrath but

Magistrate power to remove those out of the World that God would have permitted to live How soon may a Magistrate if guided by such Doctrine bring the blood of the Innocent upon himselfe and Nation and innocent blood the Lord will not pardon 2 King 24.4 It therefore highly concernes all Magistrates before they persecute any for matters of Faith or Worship to see they have a better warrant for so doing than the word of men which will not secure them at that day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to the Gospel which will bee found to be the Book that shall be opened when the dead both small and great shall stand before God to be judged by what is written therein according to their works as the Lord Jesus saith The Word that I have spoken the same shall judge you at the last day and this is his word to Let both Tares and Wheat grow together in the Field of the World until the Harvest 4 It can in no wise be safe for Magistrates in the dayes of the Gospel to persecute and destroy those that are contrary minded in Religious matters because of their fallibility and that is the very reason why the Lord Jesus in the fore-mentioned Parable forbids gathering up the Tares lest the Wheat be rooted up along with them That Magistrates may erre in Spiritual and Religious matters woful experience hath taught the world in all ages the Lord of Life himself was put to death for supposed blasphemy and wickedness and accused for being an enemy unto Cesar which great mistake was committed through ignorance as Peter saith And now Brethren I not that through ignorance ye did it as also did your Rulers And at this day what mistakes are continued in Magistrates about Religion some being Calvinists as in Holland and Geneva more Lutherans but the greatest part Papists and each of these condemneth and many times persecuteth the other for Heresie or Superstition unavoydably therefore it follows that some of these must erre but we need not go far for the proof of this in one and the same person who receives that at one time for truth which at another time must be persecuted for error this appeared notably in King Henry the Eighth who persecuted the Protestants to death and writes against Luther for which the Pope gives him the Title of Defender of the Faith and yet a while after receives some of Luthers Doctrine and rejects the Supremacy and Authority of the Pope and serves the Papists as he did the Protestants nor will Magistrates be the more free from mistakes by relying on the Authority of Synods Popes or General Councils because such eminent contradictions and oppositions have appeared amongst each of them that nothing is more uncertain than their conclusions As for General Councils whose Authority is in the greatest estimation of the three it is plain they are so far from being infallible that their Decrees have been not only directly opposite to plain Texts of Scripture and the practice of the Primitive Church but also against each other which appeared first in the Council of Constantine the Thirteenth Session where it was Decreed that the Lords Supper should be given but in one kinde when nothing is more plaine than that the Lord Jesus instituted it the Apostle Paul afterwards delivered it to the Corinths and the Primitive Church received it with both the Bread and the Cup. So for the Council of Trent to Decree that the Service in the Church should be performed in Latine how contrary is it to the Doctrine of Paul who said in the Church He had rather speak five words with understanding that he might teach others than ten thousand words in an unknown Tongue So also have they clashed one with another the Council of Trent allowing Picturing of God the Father the Councel of Nice altogether disallowing of it and in the great Arrian Controversie which was no circumstantial business how many Councils and Conventions were both for and against it As little reliance can be put on any supposed infalibility the 〈◊〉 may have there having been two or three at one time each rageing against the other with their censures and decrees and notorious it is what descention there was amongst the Popes and Cardinals about Pope Formosus who being first Bishop of Pontiniake was degraded by Pope Iohn the 8 th and made to take an oath to lead a secular life al his daies yet by Pope Martin that succeeded Iohn was Formosus released from his Oath restored to his Bishoprick and afterwards came to be Pope so continued 5. years making several Decrees but Stephen the 6 th coming to the Popedome abrogates the decrees of Formosus takes up his body cuts off two of his fingers throws them into the river Tiber then buries him in a laymans Sepulchre Next to Stephen succeeded Romanus who on the other hand repeals the Acts and Decrees of his Predecessor Stephen against Formosus Pope Iohn the 10 th in a Synode at Ravena ratifies all the decrees and doings of Formosus yet after all this comes Pope Sergins digs up again Formosus cuts off his Head and 3 more of his fingers and throws his body into Tiber likewise deposed all such as had been consecrated by him Al which Schismes and discensions makes it plain to the World that there is nothing of infallibility in the Popes And for National Conventions and Synods they are so far from any shew of infallibility that the same complexion and temper the Nation is of wherein they are called and have their promotions you shall be sure to find them of because they have their dependency on the Authority that calls them together So that although the last National Synod in this Nation would have established Presbytery because that then was most like to take yet it is very questionable if now a Convention be called whether it will be much talked of amongst them Then this must be concluded from all that seeing Magistrates themselves General Councils Popes or National Synods may erre in judging and determining the most weighty Controversies in Religion there can therefore be no security for a Magistrate that he doth well in persecuting or putting to Death the contrary minded in religious matters seeing thorow mistake he may as soon persecute or put to death the true followers of the Lord Jesus or any other yea in likelihood much sooner because they in conscience towards God cannot receive the inventions and traditions of men in the Worship of God but must be a witness for the eternal God against them for which they are accounted as the Saints of old pestilent fellows movers of sedition turners of the World upside down enemies to Cesar and upon this account persecuted when the greatest part of men being unregenerate and have no other Spirit in them but what is of this World there is

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