Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	know_v	life_n	soul_n	8,168	5	4.9147	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85416	Some modest and humble queries concerning a printed paper, intituled, An ordinance presented to the Honourable House of Commons, &c. for the preventing of the growing and spreading of heresies, &c.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1646 (1646)	Wing G1204; Thomason E355_1; ESTC R201102	8,784	15

SOME MODEST AND HUMBLE QVERIES Concerning a Printed Paper Intituled An Ordinance presented to the Honourable House of Commons c. for the preventing of the growing and spreading of Heresies c ROM. 14. 5. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind ISA. 59. 9. Therefore is judgement farre from us neither doth justice over ●ake us we waite for light but behold obscurity c. JOB 8. 1. Who is this that darkneth counsell by words without knowlege HOS. 5. 1. Heare ye this O Priests and hearken ye House of Israel for judgement is towards you because you have been a snare on Mispah and a net spred upon Tabor HOS. 9. 8. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God but the Prophet is the snare of a Fowler in all his wayes and hatred in the house of his God Quid prodest habere zelum Dei non-habere scientiam Dei Orig. Quid ergo saviunt ut Stulticiam suam dum minuere volunt augeant Longe diversa 〈◊〉 carn●●●●… pietas Defendenda Religio est non occidendo sed moriendo non savitiâ sed patientiâ non scelere sed 〈◊〉 illa enim malorum sunt haec bonorum Lactant. De Iust. c. lib. 5 cap. 20. Omnis Lex debet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suae equitatis Calv. Published by Authoritie LONDON Printed by Matthew Simmons for Henry Overton and are to be sold in Popes-head Alley 1646. To the Reader BEing accidentally encountred by a vagrant Paper printed though without Authority yet with this Inscription An Ordinance presented to the Honourable House of Commons c and conceiving partly by the frame and spirit of the discourse partly from some un-clerk-like expressions in it that certainly those worthy Gentlemen whose names are specified in the said Inscription were more or lesse wronged by the publishing and spreading of it under their names and that it was some other spirit that breathed in it not theirs I supposed that possibly I might doe the said Gentlemen some right by a proposall of some Queries upon occasion of some particularities in it by meanes whereof they may the better consider in case it relates to them either in whole or in part whether it be not unworthy of them or whether and to what degree those have injured them who issued the said undeserving Papar with such a badge of honour upon it as the two names of two such well-deserving men QUERIES about the ORDINANCE WHether it be agreeable to the Spirit of Christ who came into the world as himself saith not to destroy mens lives but to save them a to make snares of any of his Doctrines for the destruction of the lives of men Whether it be agreeable to the mind of Christ for men to inflict the heavie censure of death upon their Brethren for holding forth such Doctrines or opinions in Religion suppose contrary to admonition which for ought the said inflicters know except they make themselves infallible may be the sacred Truths of God Whether it be agreeable to the will of Christ for Civill Magistrates to compell men upon paine of death to call them Rabbi or Masters when as he hath so expressely charged men yea his Apostles themselves as well as others not to be called Rabbi or Masters b or whether to injoyne and compell men especially upon the penaltie of death to preach and teach in many the most weighty and difficult points of Religion nothing but the dictates of their owne judgments and wills be not much more then simply to be called Rabbi or Masters i. then simply to connive at comply with those who professe in all things to submit their judgements and Consciences unto them yea whether is it not to threaten men and that in the ●orest manner of all other if they will not call them Rabbi or Masters i. if they will not sin against the Commandement of Christ Whether is it Christian to maintaine that Religion by putting others to death which as Lactantius saith men ought to defend non occidendo sed moriendo i. not by slaying others but by dying our selves for it Whether is it not evident from Tertullian Lactantius and other ancient and Authentick Writers that the Idolatrous Heathen sought to maintaine their Idolatrous Religions by the same Stratagems methods and wayes which the said Ordinance proposeth for maintaining the Religion of Christ Whether our best Records of later times doe not cleerely shew that the Papacy and Antichristian party in the world have still gone about to uphold that false and abominable Religion which they professe by those very shores and props wherewith the Ordinance we speake of seeks to support the true Religion of Christ Whether are errours and Heresies any other things then some of those strong holds and imaginations in men which as the Apostle saith exalt themselves against the knowledge of God a Or whether can they be better throwne downe then by those weapons which as the same Apostle speaketh are mighty through God for that very purpose And whether are these weapons carnall or spirituall Whether to injoyn Ministers or others upon pain of death imprisonment c. not to teach or maintaine any thing in many the greatest and most weighty points in Religion contrary to the present sense and apprehensions of the said Injoyners being but few in number comparatively be not to quench proceedings and to say in effect unto the holy Ghost reveale nothing more unto others then thou hast revealed unto us or rather thus if thou hast not revealed the Truth unto us reveale it not unto any other men Whether they who inflict the heavie sentence of death upon men for maintaining an opinion or Doctrine contrary to their sense and Interpretation of a Scripture one or more had not need be as infallible in their judgements at least as touching the sense and meaning of all such Scriptures as God himself Whether did Luther with divers other worthy Assertors of the Truth in his dayes against the Papists deserve death imprisonment c. for maintaining and that publiquely and against frequent Admonition by Zuinglius Calvin c. the erroneous opinion of Consubstantiation an error farre more grosse and dangerous then many particulariz'd in the Ordinance besides many others not inferior in evill unto this as concerning free-will election c Whether did Calvin deserve either imprisonment or death for teaching and maintaining publiquely by writing that the observation of the Lords day as it is injoyned by the Ordinances and Lawes of this Realme is not according to the Word of God Whether doth a Minister in case that in the performance of his office in preaching the Gospel he shall mistake the mind of Christ or the true sense of a Scripture one or more cited interpreted by him according to the best light which God hath given him deserve either death or imprisonment for his mistake or whether many of the opinions made liable hereunto by the Ordinance be constructively any

thing moe or of any worse demerit then a mistake or misunderstanding of some Scriptures Whether a mistake in judgement as suppose a man verily and in the simplicitie of his heart judgeth that Infants ought not to be Baptized or that Presbytery is unlawfull or the like joyned with a publique and free profession of his judgement in this kinde be more sinfull or more deserving imprisonment death c. then an open and manifest deniall in works of such Truths which yet men professe in words as when men professe that they beleeve Jesus to be the Son of God and that the Scriptures are the word of God c. and yet live loosly prophanely in drunkennesse riot c. Or whether the Ordinance maketh not the former denialls which at most are but of Truths very questionable and obscure yea and but of inferior consequence neither at least comparatively punishable by imprisonment or death whereas it inflicts no censure at all upon these latter denialls except it be in the case of blasphemy which are every whit as full publique as the other yea and of Truths both more generally received and farre more easie to be proved yea and of a far greater and more formidable consequence then those other Whether Ministers truly faithfull and conscientious being fully perswaded in their soules and consciences that many of the opinions asserted in the Ordinance for Truths yet are not such but errors of wch perswasion there are many such Ministers in England shall doe well to comply with the Ordinance so called against their judgements and publiquely hold forth to the people those things for truths which they are absolutely perswaded in their judgements to be nothing lesse Or whether the said Ordinance threatening them with imprisonment or death in case they shall declare themselves otherwise be not a dangerous temptation upon them to draw their foot into that snare of death Whether the publicke holding of any such opinion which according to the doctrine of the Apostles themselves deserves not excommunication from or by a Christian Church may yet deserve imprisonment or a cutting off by death by the civil Magistrate Or are they who are meete and worthy to live and converse as members in a Church of Christ unworthy so much as to live in a politique or civill State Or were there not in the Church of Corinth yea and in other Churches besides in the Apostles dayes who publiquely held some opinions of farre worse consequence then very many of those which the said Ordinance censureth either with imprisonment or with death Of whose excommunication notwithstanding the Apostle is silent even then when he argueth against and condemneth their errors Yea doth he not intreat them graciously notwithstanding the danger of their error calling them beloved Brethren a admonisheth them to take heed of being deceived to be stedfast unmoveable c. Whether is it not very possible that persons who may hold and upon occasion publiquely maintaine many of the opinions condemned as errors by the Ordinance may yet be as full of grace and goodnesse as precious in the sight of God as fruitfull in every good worke as serviceable to the State and Common-wealth as those who are of another judgement and practise O● what repugnancy is there in either of those things unto any of these if so whether can it be a thing well pleasing unto God or of any good accommodation to the State to make a Law for the punishing or afflicting of such persons Whether is not such an Ordinance were it an ordinance indeed in the very nature and direct tendency of it likely to prove a grand discouragement unto many from taking the calling of the Ministery upon them the Kingdome suffering at present so extreamely for want of able and faithfull men in this calling and especially such who are most ingenuous and most eminently qualified by God for this great worke or whether are not men of greatest worth for parts and abilities especially in conjunction with good and tender consciences the most absolute composition for the Ministery more like then other men to decline that imployment wherein they are so much the more like to suffer for a good conscience sake then other men by how much the more likely they are to discover the common errors and misprisions of the present age in matters of Religion then they Whether is not the said Ordinance in the example of it a direct incouragement and confirmation to Popish Magistrates to persecute the faithfull servants of God who live in their territories with fire sword for professing the truth of God amongst them And whether doe not they who here seeke to plucke up the tares by such an Ordinance plucke up the wheat also there by the same Whether was there ever any such Ordinance or State act ever heard of or knowne in any the Reformed Churches I meane which was so apparently bent against the faces if not of the greatest part yet of so considerable a part of the best and most conscientious men amongst them as this is Whether was there ever any thing done in the Bishops times or any thing attempted to be done by this generation of men in the day of their greatest interest and power in the Kingdome of that bloudy consequence to those godly persons Ministers or others whom they most hated and sought to crush as this Ordinance if once established is like to be to surre greater numbers of truely pious and conscientious men Whether the said Ordinance ministreth not an advantage of opportunity to the worst and wickedest of men who commonly hate the best and faithfullest Ministers most to accuse them unduly of such things which according to the ordinary course of Law may touch their lives or otherwise bring much affliction and vexation to them Whether twelve simple Countrimen such as our ordinary Juries usually confist of at Countrey Assizes who alas are far from being versed or any wayes judgemented in the profound questions in Divinity unto many of which the Ordinance relateth and who are generally uncapable of such equipollencies proprieties and differences of words upon the understanding or right discerning whereof the innocencie or guiltinesse of the person indited is very likely to depend be of any competent faculty or interest to passe upon the life or liberty of a studious learned and conscientious man in such cases which the greatest and ablest professors of Divinitie in the world are not able cleerly or with any competent satisfaction to the scrupulous many times to resolve or determine Whither an ordinary Judge of Ass●●e who either doth not pretend or at most in most cases doth but pretend to any thoroughnesse of search or inquiry into the deep things of God in the abstruse and disputable points of Religion as that of free will of the Trinity of the hypostaticall union concerning the death of Christ the condition of the soule after death c. be a competent Judge in such

Questions and cases as these especially over and against such men to the bereaving of them either of life or libertie who are knowne to be men of able parts and to have made the study of Divinity their sole imployment all their dayes being otherwise grave and sober and conscientious men in all their wayes Whether these two opinions both of them attainded for errors and made equally punishable by the ordinance 1o That the morrall Law contained in the ten Commandements is no rule of a Christian life 2o That the observation of the Lords day as it is enjoyned by the Ordinances and Lawes of this Realme is not according or contrary to the word of God can possibly be both errors or justly punishable since the Observation of the Lords day as it is enjoyned by the Ordinances and Lawes of this Realme is no where to be found in the Morall Law contained in the ten Commandements this Law requiring the observation of another day differing from that the observation whereof is injoyned by the Ordinances and Lawes of this Realme Or if the Law contained in the ten Commandements be the rule of a Christian life whether doe they walke Christianly who doe not conforme themselves unto it nay who place a great part of their Christianity in walking if not contrary to it yet quite beside it as all they doe who observe the Lords day as it is injoyned by the Ordinances and Laws of this Realme and celebrate the two Sacraments Baptisme and the Loods Supper mentioned likewise in the Ordinance Whether doth the Ordinance making this a punishable errour to hold that a man by nature hath free will to turne unto God by this expression of having free will to turne unto God intend to grant any will at all in men by nature to turne unto God though much incumbred and oppressed with corruption and indisposition to such an act and in that respect meaneth that it is not free or else to denie all and all manner of will in men in respect of this act so that when God purposeth to make men willing to turne to him he must create a new facultie of will in him as also a new disposition or propension in this will whereby it may be freely carried upon this act of conversion What does the Ordinance mean by blasph●ming the name of God or any of the Holy Trinity doth it mean any kinde or degree of sin against the third Commandement or any and every kinde of swearing as by Faith Troth or the like so that upon the second offence committed in this kinde after and contrary to admonition the party offending is to suffer death or doth it by blaspheming the name of God c. intend onely the highest kindes of Blasphemy as the calling of God or of Jesus Christ accursed wicked unjust unfaithfull c What doth the Ordinance mean by impugning the word of God doth it mean the opposing by way of argument and discourse every truth contained and delivered in the Word of God or onely the proposall and inforcement of such reasons and grounds the tendency whereof is to prove it indefinitly taken and considered not to be the Word of God In what sence doth the Ordinance make it erroneous and punishable to hold that God seeth no sin in the justified inasmuch as there is a sence if not more then one wherein it is most certainly true that God seeth no sin in such persons a In what sence doth the Ordinance adjudge it an error worthy to be punished and that with no lesse than perpetuall imprisonment in case it be not abjured to hold and maintain that a man is bound to beleeve no more than by his reason hee can comprehend Doth it intend to make men of this Faith that they are bound in conscience to beleeve more than they can comprehend that is cleerly and fully conceive any reason why they should beleeve If so then how much or to what proportion of object are they bound to beleeve beyond what they are able to comprehend by reason sufficient cleer grounds of beleeving Are they bound to beleeve in this kinde I mean beyond what they are able to comprehend by reason without measure bounds or limits If so are they bound to beleeve all things without exception that shall any wayes or by any hand be presented unto them Or if Reason ought not to regulate or limit men about the object or matter of their beleeving then are they bound to beleeve those things concerning which there is no ground or reason at all why they should be beleeved If so whether is Divine Revelation or the asserting of things by God any ground or reason comprehensible in that relation by that faculty of Reason or understanding in a man for the beleeving of all things so revealed and asserted If so whether is not Reason able to comprehend and judge of all things required by God as necessary to be beleeved so farre as they are necessary to be beleeved i. e as farre as they are revealed by God Or is any man bound to beleeve that concerning which it is unpossible for him or any man to comprehend or conceive any reason why it should be a Truth and consequently worthy or meet to be beleeved Or what instance can be given in any particular branch of the object of Faith which ought to be beleeved and yet is unpossible to be comprehended by Reason that it is a Truth Or whether ought any man at least in sensu composito to beleeve the deepest or highest mystery in Religion any further or any otherwise then as and as farre as he hath Reason to judge it to be a Truth What doth the Ordinance mean by publishing Doctrines with obstinacy Doth it mean a publishing of them contrary to the will pleasure or prohibition of the Assembly of Divines or of any particular man whether they shew unto the Assertors or Publishers of such Doctrines any sufficient reason to convince them or no Or what kinde or manner of Reasons doth it intend those shall be upon the tender whereof either by the said Assembly or others the publisher of the Doctrines shall be judged obstinate in case he shall still publish them Or if by publishing with obstinacy be meant a publishing contrary to the desires or injunctions of men without any sufficient reason given of their desires or injunctions in this kinde then in what sense or notion doth the Ordinance understand the word Obstinacy or how many desires prohibitions or injunctions of men to the contrary must precede and be administred before a man shall according to meaning and intent of the Ordinance be said to publish a Doctrine obstinately Whereas the said Ordinance maketh it an error and the publishing of it punishable with imprisonment to hold that Government by Presbytery is unlawfull whether doth it mean that Government by Presbytery which the Parliament hath established or that Government by Presbytery which is so importunely desired