Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	field_n	good_a	tare_n	1,044	5	12.5068	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39566	Christianismus redivivus Christndom both un-christ'ned and new-christ'ned, or, that good old way of dipping and in-churching of men and women after faith and repentance professed, commonly (but not properly) called Anabaptism, vindicated ... : in five or six several systems containing a general answer ... : not onely a publick disputation for infant baptism managed by many ministers before thousands of people against this author ... : but also Mr. Baxters Scripture proofs are proved Scriptureless ... / by Samuel Fisher ...	Fisher, Samuel, 1605-1665.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1655 (1655)	Wing F1049; ESTC R40901	968,208	646

in matters of faith repentance Religion worship see Barbers answer to the Essex watchmens watch-word p. 7. c. the Magistrate receives no charge from God about Religion neither is cura ammarum but cura corporum onely committed to him Luther himself was of this mind that the Lawes of the Magistrate extended no further then to the bodies and goods that which is external and that God would have none to rule in the soul but himself therefore where the Magistrate goes about to govern in the conscience he usurps that jurisdiction which God reserves to himself certainly this is that great arrogany in the Whore or Woman of sin which God will severely punish in that S S Shee gives lawes to the conscience and sits in the Temple and Church of God as a God King Iames in Parliament 1609 said That it is a sure rule in Divinity that God never loves to plant his Church with violence and blood and again in his Apology for the oath of Allegeance p. 4. speaking of the Papists that took the said oath That he gave a good proof of it that he never intended persecution for conscience but onely desired to be secured of them for civil abuses that it was usually the condition of Christians to be persecuted but not to persecute Again Faith and repentance to acknowledgement of the truth is Gods gift and if wee 'l believe our Clergy no way in every mans power no not by gift from God to perform and so the Magistrate must punish men belike because God who gives where he lists does not give them to believe c. Again Blasphemers Persecutors as Paul Idolators as the Corinthians yea Iewes Turks and Pagans may be converted in time by the word therefore are not to be plucked up out of the Earth for then they can never possibly repent Again persecution was never taught by Christ nor practised by his Apostles but arose among Heathens and was continued by the Roman Antichrist and his Ministers Yet there 's one way more whereby they evade all this and that is by denying that by the Tares here are meant Hereticks False Worshippers and Antichristians and asserting them to be Hypocrites in the Church and this is the way of Mr. Cotton whereby you may see again how Divines are divided among themselves in all things almost as well as some which Mr. Cotton in a book which the Bloody Tenet relates to gives out as I remember that by tares is meant hypocrites in the Church who are so like the wheat that they cannot well be discovered nor discerned from it and so must be let alone in the Church by the Ministers of the Church least they mistake and pluck up wheat instead of tares and cast out men for hypocrites who its possible may be sincere for ought we know In answer to which I must confesse men that cast out persons for Hypocrites had need be pretty wary and not overhasty yea better an inconvenience than a mischief bet●er erre in letting some Hypocrites stand in the Church then for hast cast out one that seemes to be so to us and yet is not But this is not the sense of our Saviour in this place for as it cannot be the Church that the Tares are here bid to be let alone in as I have shewed above so much lesse by the tares can be meant hypocrites so neer the wheat i. e. true Saints in shew and likenesse and pretence as to be hardly discerned from them For First Though Hypocrites are like Saints and appear so to be oft it may be alwaies to the deceiving of us yet the Tares are not at all like the wheat nor at all to any but such as are stark blind appearing to be wheat Secondly an Hypocrite in the Church who is one that app●ars to be what he is not must be supposed while he is in the Church to be discovered or not discovered so to be when not discovered he is no hypocrite to us to whom things are as they appear what ere he may be to God but as true a Saint as the rest and when discovered till when to us he is a Saint and must stand under the notion of a Saint then he must not stand in the Church which is not to harbor any that are palpably wicked and who is so palpable as he whose simulata sanctitas is dulplex iniquitas But now First the tares hee spoken of are plainly said and seen to be tares and appeare to be tares and a distinct stuff from the Wheat and yet for all that they are bid to be let alone in the Field as hypocrites must not be in the Church when they appear to be such But in the field i. e the world t is true enough that hypocrites may stand even after they are cast out of the Church unlesse they act any thing that civil justice will reach them for and so also may Antichristians and all false Worshippers T is evident then that in this place as well as Matth. 15.13.14 that in the time of the Gospel Church Tares that much hinder the wheat that are mingled in the same Field world Civil States Countreyes Common-wealths of Satans sowing among the Wheat Weeds Nettles Bryers Thorns Plants that are not of the heavenly Fathers planting Fa●se worshippers Hereticks men and their Ministryes of false Religions doctrines faiths waies of serving God may and ought by permission and commission from Christ be let alone and allowed to stand by no means in the same Church by all means in the same world or part of the world locally considered for the Church is not locally considered as a place measured by and consistent of such or such a compasse of ground as the Popes parish Churches did whereupon they went on procession once a year lest they should forget the bounds of their Church but mystically of such or such a company of men however scattered locally here or there yet in one fellowship I say in the same part of the world nation City Countrey civill corporation with the wheat Saints true Church under the protective power of civil Magistracy free from molestation meerly for their religion so be they live justly soberly and peacably with all men any thing said to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding by the Priest who of all men hath least reason to be against toleration of tares in the world and of plants which the heavenly father never planted if he consider what he is himself and unlesse he desire to be rooted out in hast by the civill power before his time See the parable and read it with the exposition of it Mat. 13.37 c. He that sowed good seed in the field is the son of man i. e. Christ the field is the world therefore not the Church the good seed or wheat are the children of the Kingdom i. e. the Saints the true Church and worshippers the tares which while men slept and did not mind it the

enemy came and sowed among the wheat i. e. in the same parts and places of the world Towns Countreyes c. locally considered the children of the wicked one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thes. 2. that wicked false worshippers of God after their own inventions mens precepts not his will people and priests grown up into a Church worship ministery religion insensibly by little and little from false principles and foundations custome forefathers prudential additions of orthodox men c. not the pure naked word it self a people born to their religion yea their christian religion in the way of flesh and blood and the will of man of the Pope and councells constituting and civil powers from them commanding not of God by the word of truth The Enemy that sowed them is the devil for he indeed filled the whole world even the whole Christian world with false worshippers false principled Clergy men and when he could not kill the wheat the Christians in the ten persecutions in his open war against them by the mouth of th● beast or empire heathen wherein he prosecuted them under their own names because Constantine a Christian was come now to the crown then he turned Christian himself and would have Christianity imbraced by all meanes by a law and sowed the seed of false principles of stablishing Christian religion as the onely religion before which all other shall now down promoting Christianity in the shell that he might kill it in the substance causing great honours revenues Peters patrimonies to be given in favour of Christianity from which principles selfish ambitious lazy luxurious Ministers as the Pope formall meer nominal Christians grew up and overtopt the truth and true Saints that kept close to the truth in the midst of all this mock shew wherin the devil hath kept an apish imitaon of Christs church all along and ministry ordinances baptism supper church censure but all corrupt and trod the holy city to the ground Rev. 11. the same subtle one now he sees his trade of forcing men from the truth by the principle of conformity to the false Christianity and the old Spiritualty fail is now shifting himself undoubtedly in to another Spiritualty that will as much corrupt delude the world by the principle of liberty of conscience abused and turnd by the Ranter into license though we who plead for liberty of truth say in maxima libertate est minima licentia in the greatest liberty of conscience to serve God there 's the least licence to serve the devil by our lusts and corrupt our selves in what we know naturally as bruit beasts nor is that conscience that makes conscience of nothing The harvest is the end of the world the reapers the Angels by whom at that time Christ will throughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into his barn and burn up all chaff Tares husks weeds bryers thornes idolators hypocrites subtle seducers and sinful subverters of the truth whoever shall appear to have been such and all other trash with unquenchable fire Matth. 3.12 Mean while I say still Tares may stand among wheat locally in one Country yet not lawfully in one church society Weeds and flowers Roses and nettles Lillies and thornes Vines and brambles Idolatours and true worshippers Believers and infidells the children of the Kingdome and of the wicked one the Temple of God and idols Christs church and the Devils chappel discovered hypocrites and sincere Saints Christians of all sorts save such whose very principle prohibits toleration and they make the case uncapable to be which will win or loose all stand alone or not at all as whether the P P Priesthoods do not or at least did not let all men judge Jews Turks and Pagans may be lawfully allowed their religions living in subjection under one civil power if the whole world were but one Monarchy in one World in one Field or Common-wealth though not in one Garden not in one Vineyard or Church and may not be made to be of the true religion whether they will or no yea I appeal to the conscience of any sober minded man whether if Pontius Pilate whom the Scripture stiles the Governour of Iudaea and a lawful Governour over the church a very heathen may be but no heathen lawfully a member much lesse an officer or a Governour in the Church whether I saie if Pilate should have been converted by Christ at the bar while he sate on the bench and truely believed in him it would have pleased Christ that he should have improved his civil power to have established Christianity in Iudaea and forced all men under penalty to believe in christ and renounce all meer Jewish worships or whether it had been as lawful a decree in Augustus Caesar to have forced all men to be Christians under a penalty as t was in him to issue out a decree that all the world should be taxed I suppose not but that he must have left all to their waies and have practised it himself and protected it from injury and propounded it to all in way of preaching but not prosecuting any by his civil power if they would yet remain Jewes or heathens and Christ might as easily have made Emperors his Disciples had he meant that the Gospel should be established by civil power And this is for the further safegard and advantage to the wheat as I sayd before for Christ gives this reas●n why he would have the tares to be let alone least by rooting out the tares the wheat be rooted out also for if all religions may stand then the true one may stand in quiet without disturbance if all people may walk every one in the name of his God Mich. 4.5 then we may walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever but if all be beaten down in a state and but one stand ten thousand to nothing it is not the truth that is there established for truth may be trodden down but treads not down others in a violent way of persecution Besides if true Religion establish it self alone in some States by forcing men to subject to it its gives a bad example to false religions in other states that think themselves in the right to do the like and force men that love the truth there to submit to them and so there 's quit for quo and no end of disturbances they saying that we are Tares we that they are and so there is nothing but pulling up by the roots if toleration be not tolerated as the most peacemaking principle and so in these bussles if the wheat grow alone some where it must fall elsewhere even every where where the tares are resolved to stand alone and so Homo Homini Lupus Christianus Christiano Diabolus men must be wolves and devils each to other throughout the world Besides if the power in any place be ignorant and under an erring conscience that conscientia errans