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	know_v	life_n	7,935	5	4.3038	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93885	Some observations and annotations upon the Apologeticall narration, humbly submitted to the Honourable Houses of Parliament; the most reverend and learned Divines of the Assembly, and all the Protestant Churches here in this island, and abroad.	Steuart, Adam.	1644 (1644)	Wing S5492; Thomason E34_23; ESTC R21620	55,133	77

travell to bring in Presbyteriall Government Are they richer then before they were Are they to be in greater places then Ministers of the Word Truely I may say something that I have seen Some of them sundry times so exhausted their sickly bodies with pains in this Cause that sundry times they lost their health and fell sick but for worldly profit and preferment I never heard of it How great a fortune made Calvin with it Who as it is known and faithfully related by those who did write his life sundry times refused worldly means in a very fair and honourable way offered unto him and whose Inventory after his death hardly could amount to 40 pounds We had say ye nothing else to do but simply and singly to consider how to worship God acceptably Answ So much may many others say But most truely may as much be said of our first Parents in Paradise yet they gave themselves some other thing to do Besides all this ye are too peremptorious ye five to speak in the name of all the rest for howsoever every one of you may answer for one viz. for himself yet can none of you nor ye all answer for all those of your profession since their hearts are unknown to you and ye have no warrant from them Sect. 6. pag. 4. We were not engaged by Education c. And yet it is a blessing of God by Education to be engaged to good and bred in a true Doctrine and Ecclesiasticall Discipline Neither esteem I that it was a curse to the People of God to have been bred in his Covenant Neither think ye it a curse to yours to have been bred amongst you Ye suppose that other Reformed Churches might not see in all things So suppose we of you and that with greater reason being but five men not comparable with so many lights of the World of whom ye make your selves judges And yet ye esteem wrong in esteeming that their intention was most spent in the Reformation of Doctrine 1. For that is indirectly to accuse them of negligence in reforming of Discipline 2. Because their Consultations and Epistles sent to sundry Churches abroad testifies the contrary 3. Because the French tia vell very much about their Discipline and have reformed sundry things therein 4 And have a great many more helps then ye to frame it to Gods Word for it is expresly injoyned every Church Ruler to read it diligently Once every three moneths it is read in their Consistory and what ever any man findeth defectuous in it is represented to the Synod wherein there are so many of the learnedst most judicious and holy Divines of the whole Kingdom by whom after due Examination by Common-advice in the fear of the Lord at may much better be reformed then by the advice of one Independent Minister and two or three Ruling Elders in their particular Congregation And to think that one of you can see more then so many learned and Godly men gathered in the fear of the Lord cannot be thought without too good opinion of your selves 5. Besides all this a good Discipline may very well be established by men of lesse holinesse of life so be it they have greater abilities for the gift of constituting a good Discipline is not a gift proper to a good man but to a good Church Officer it is not Gratia grarum faciens sed gratis data not a saving gift or grace that maketh us gracious or acceptable to God but graciously given or bestowed upon us not to save our selves but other men as the gift of Prophesie for a man in preaching and ruling may save others and damn himself And a man may be a very good Prophet or Ruler in the Church if he have the abilities thereunto and exercise them well and an ill man if he let not himself be taught and ruled So we may say a man may be a good Citizen a good King a good Souldier or a good Cobler but an ill man Ye grant that In Doctrine they had a most happy hand but wherefore may ye not judge them as well to have had an happy hand in Discipline Was Gods hand more deficient to them in the one then in the other Or had they lesse abilities Or used they not their abilities What reason rather for the one then for the other Had they more Kingdoms to subdue then ye Or any other politicall ayms Or greater temptations then ye In the same Paragraph ye propound your Obtervations viz. That that Government viz. Presbyteriall hath been accompanied with more peace then yours and it is very true for who can tell how many Schismes and Heresies your Government is subject unto What Divisions and immortall hatreds it hath bred in New-England c. 2. If it hath more peace then it is such as it should be and obtaineth its adequate end which is the externall peace of the Church Ye adde That the power of godliness had not bin advanced amongst thē at in this Island From whence ye seem to infer that it is not so good as yours Ans 1. As for your Antecedent it is too bold to make your selves Judges of the power of godlinesse in other Churches and to judge your selves the holiest of all others But ye prove it by their own Confession Answ Brethren ye do not well to take advantage upon other mens Humilitie for to depresse them and extoll your selves They do well to think soberly of themselves So do not ye in esteeming so highly of your selves and so meanly of them 2. And the French are very courteous and civill but the more courteous and civill they be the more discourteous and uncivill be ye that take advantage by their courteousnesse and civilitie to depresse them under your selves 3. They have also this defect that they have too many complements But they say also Let compliments ne doibvent point estre pris au pied de la lettre Complements must not be taken literally It seems ye have not much travelled amongst them or remarked well the fashion of the Countrey But put the case your Antecedent were as true as it is false yet your Consequence is naught because of many captions and sophistications it containeth onely I will touch two the first is fallacia non causae ut causae a fallacious argumentation which bringeth a false and apparent cause for the true cause of the effect or a false effect for the true effect of the cause for if there were a greater power of godlinesse amongst you then in other Churches the cause thereof should not be the fault of the Government but of the Divell of those that govern or are governed not because your Discipline is better then ours or ours worse then yours But 1. because the Divell evermore assaults more the true Church the true Doctrine and true Discipline then the corrupted Church her corrupted Doctrine or Discipline to the end that thereby he may calumniate them all imputing craftily to

further it and having no impediments that could hinder it Your helps were first Gods Word Secondly The Discipline of the Reformed Churches Thirdly That of the Non-Conformists Fourthly That of New-England Fifthly The example and president of the Shipwrack of the Brownists Sixthly The reason ye had to be true to your consciences The impediments or hinderances ye could have were first worldly temptations secondly aymes thirdly education fourthly engagement to other Churches from which all ye were free But this Enumeration is imperfect for the grace of God which is the principall help without which we can do nothing is here omitted But let us examine them all according to the order that ye have set them down We lookt upon the Word of Christ as impartially and unprejudicedly as men made of flesh and blood are like to do in any juncture of time that may fall out This is much As for us Brethren being but men made of flesh and blood we know that we know but in part that we do but in part the good we have power to do for we have power to do more good then we do that we may omit much evill that we do that of both we know very little in respect of that we know not For the heart of man is deceitfull and who can know it And as for others we know much lesse then of our selves not knowing their hearts temptations ayms intentions or their sins repentance backslidings their falls or uprising but least of all of men possible in junctures of time to come that God can create for what know ye or we Brethren what may be And therefore we dare not be so bold as to compare our selves with others in time present much lesse with those that be possible in junctures of time to come in esteeming our selves as good or better then they may be And therefore I esteem that your comparison proceedeth rather of flesh and blood then of the spirit of God We wish indeed we were the best of all men but we esteem not our selves the best Oh that we might be but in the number of good men We wish we could say as much as ye but again we dare not being conscious of our own infirmitie that we are but flesh and blood But ye seem to prove it by removing of hinderances as first Of Temptations of the place ye went unto your condition and company which left you as freely to be guided by Gods Word as the Needle toucht with the Loadstone is in the compasse But this is an imperfect Enumeration of Temptations It containeth onely some externall and yet not all as those that proceed from the Divell and omit internall Temptations whereof ye purge not your selves sufficiently But left that company you in such a condition Medied it self no more in a businesse of so great consequence in establishing a new Government to which it was to submit it self Did it so let it self be led by the nose Had it no more interest in the businesse It is too much Onely I adde it is one of the greatest Temptations that a man can fall into to esteem himself without Temptations and that such a man in such a case should not need to say Lead us not into Temptation And was this no Temptation that ye went out of your Countrey with some miscontentment in it that ye found your selves so consociated that ye might frame your Government to your present estate and condition as was requisite in such a company that shuning too much one extremitie because of your sufferings ye should presently run into the other Neither was this extravagant power a small temptation Nunquam satis fida potentia ubi uimia est We had say ye of all men the greatest reason to be true to our own consciences in what we should embrace This Brethren cannot be said without a high esteem of your selves and great undervaluing of others Have not other men as good reason as ye to be true unto their consciences since they are all bound under the pain of eternall condemnation to that duty What greater reason then this can ye have Have not these whom ye call Presbyterians who were condemned to death for that Discipline ready to be executed who afterward were exiled into forraign Countreys wherein they ended their lives who were men of no lesse learning abilities and holinesse of life then any of your profession had they not I say as great reason to be true to their consciences as ye can have Afterward in this Paragraph ye remove all ayms and ends that might make you byas We had say ye no new Common-Wealths to rear c. As much may all Schismaticks say Neither can every man have new Common-wealths to rear neither can these of New-England say so And as for you five your number was too small and howsoever ye had not Kingdoms in your eye yet had every one of you one in his heart to subdue Tunc omnia jura renebis cum poteris Rex esse tui Hoc regnum sibi quisque dat This is a Kingdom which every man by Gods grace may take and give to himself without any materiall Arms or Armies And howbeit ye have no State ends neverthelesse as ye have very many good men so have ye very many good States-men among you yea more then those that maintain Presbyterian Discipline in regard of your number But what Republikes had the Protestants in France or Scotland to rear or worldly Kingdoms to subdue more then ye Your mould of Church Government will be coexistent say ye with the peace of any form of civill Government on earth that may be true of yours but not of ours for it cannot comply with that of the Turks and we confesse ingenuously that for any thing we know yours will comply a great deal more with State and State ayms then ever S. Peter S. Paul or we could do howsoever ours submitteth it self willingly to all sort of just Government that is of God Neither requireth the Parliament any thing more of the Church of GOD. Howbeit ye had No preferment or worldly respects to shape your opinions for yet praised be God your Ministers have no want but as great abundance of worldly means as any of your Brethren that stand for Presbyteriall Government But what preferment or worldly respects could Calvin or Beza have had who for the puritie of Doctrine and of Discipline introduced this Presbyteriall Government whereby both themselves and all they that should thereafter professe the Gospel were deprived of all hopes of future preferment and worldly respects What preferment or worldly respects could they have that refused them when they were offered unto them and prefer'd death and perpetuall exile before good fat Bishopricks We know King James his round answer when some asked him wherefore he preferred not good men to Bishopricks in Scotland The Divell an honest man sayes he will accept them And what greater preferment have they who at this present